A Trainer's Blood Runs Deep
by SpartaLazor
Summary: After he became the Sinnoh Leauge Champion, Trevor moves onto the Unova Reigon in an attempt to forget his past, where his first love has died. Traveling along side him is Mespirit, who is in a human form due to a deal that was made by Arceus. After Nikki Maddison, who also has dream of being the Champ, joins him,Trevor is forced to learn to love again. OCxOC
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Some of you might have read the original story, which I started over a year ago. It wasn't very good, so I am rewriting it adding some plot twists.**_

Chapter One: Arrival of a Champion

I stared up at the stars, twinkling in the night sky. It was alomst like the first night of my Sinnoh journey, about a year ago. The beauty of the stars was interrupted by a bridge that the boat sailed under. I rolled my eyes. Unova had to be the only reigon held together by those bridges.

Some would say that I was on the run. On the run from my past. Even though I knew you couldn't escape what ever had happened. But losing her was too much. She had been my partner for the whole journey, and now, it was my fault she was gone.

In all actuality, we were more than just partners. She was my girlfriend, and I would have died to protect her. Would have, if she hadn't made that stupid move...

The boat silently pulled into the dock in Casteila City, and I walked down the plank first. The city lights all around me reminded me of Veilstone City, and my fourth Gym badge. I slid my hand into my bag, and pulled out my Badge case. The Sinnoh badges shone like that had been polished yesterday. They had, actually.

As I put the case back in the bag, my hand brushed against a Pokeball. The only Pokemon that I had brought from Sinnoh, and I had never used it. Never needed too, either.

"Are you with me?" I whispered to the Pokemon constricted inside of it.

_You bet, dude! _I sighed. So much for the touching Hallmark moment. Seriously, that Pokemon could be an ass sometimes. I sighed as I put the ball back into my bag.

"Ready to go?" I looked up to see a pink haired girl about my age wearing a leather jacket and blue jeans walking toward me.

"Spiri, nice to see you again. I assume that you found us capable transport to Nuvema Town? My aunt is waiting for me."

She just stared at me. "I thought that was your job. I've just been waiting around here for you, thanks to that damn deal you made with my old man."

"Oh please. That was his idea. I had no other option. Plus, I thought it would be smart. You and the others should be around qualified trainers in the event Team Galatic or another Team comes after you. Remember the pain that you went through when they captured you?"

She sighed. "Fine. Now to et to your aunt's house, I'll do it the easy way." She grabbed my hand, and closed her eyes, focusing. A small oval of red light began to glow out from under the pink hair covering her forehead. There was a flash, and we were in Nuvema Town.

I looked around and saw that no one had seen our entrance. Well, no one except for the drunk hobo that stared at us, back at his bottle, then back to us. Then, the hobo fainted.

The girl, in case you missed the several indications previously stated, was in fact Mespirit. After the fall of Team Galactic, Arceus and I had made a deal that to ensure that Cyrus's attempt to summon Dialga and Palkia never happened again, the Lake Legends would travel by the sides of worthy trainers, until Arceus thought it was safe. They were to stay in human forms at all times. It wasn't as much as a deal than Arceus's commandment, but hey, I'm not going to argue with the strongest Pokemon in the world.

"Now, let's find my aunts house," I said, looking around the town. Spiri, that's what I called her, pointed at a house. "It's that one. I sensed her aura, almost like yours." I went up and knocked on the door. As expected, my aunt walked to the door.

"You know what time it is? I've been waiting for about five hours," she said, sternly. The smell of chocolate chip cookies wafted out the door. The she smiled. "It's good to see you! I saw your match with Cynthia, and I'm proud of you." Then she saw Spiri. "Who's your firend?"

"Umm...this is Spiri, Spiri Lake." Spiri shot me a look. _You dick, _she said telepathically. But still, the incognito legendary smiled and shook my aunt's hand. She let us in, and went over to a plate of fresh baked cookies. She offered us each one, and they were the best cookies I had had in a long time.

"I wasn't expecting Trevor to have company, especially female company, so didn't prepare the guest room. You can use Trent's room," my aunt said, pointing at the room up the stairs. Spiri nodded and headed up the stairs. I followed after her, but Aunt stopped me. "Does she know that you're the Champion of Sinnoh?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"Yes, in fact, she probably knows a lot more about me then I know about me." She gave me a quizzical look. "I'll explain at a better time." I headed up the stairs and into my cousin's old room. Trent had left, not on a journey, but to play football in Nimbasa.

There was only one bed in the room. I groaned. Having only one bed was a plauge for male and female trainers who were traveling together, But, it's different when you're traveling with a legendary Pokemon.

"Bed's mine," Spiri said, as she jumped on to it. After all, since she was a human against her will, she was going to bug me for it the entire time. Arceus was the only one that currently had the power to change the Lake Legends back into their original forms, and had made them completely human teenagers, with the exception of a limited amount of pyshic powers, like teleportation. He said it was a "Security Precution." It was easy to tell that Arceus liked to fuck with peoples, and Pokemons, lives.

"Fine by me. I had always wanted to sleep on the floor," I shot back, tossing my bag on the floor, and unzipping my jacket. I used my bag as a pillow, and my blue jacket became my blanket. I took off my cap, exposing hy bright orange hair. I tossed the Pokeball cap into the corner of the room. "Night," I muttered.

"Is it going to be fun?" Spiri asked. Drat, I was almost asleep.

"Depends on what you think fun is," I responded, and let the darkness overcome me.

Spiri looked at the sleeping trainer. She had a strange feeling. _What is this feeling I feel. I mean, I know I'm the Emotion Pokemon, but I've never felt this before. _After hours of thought, she fell asleep.

I awoke to the sound of bird Pokemon chirping, and by instinct, I reached for my pokedex. That's when I remembered that I didn't have it with me. Rowan said that he would upgrade it and send it to Juniper, so, at least I would be getting it back soon.

I stood up, and saw the Spiri was still asleep. She was floating in mid-air on due to her pyshic powers. Apparently, she hadn't adjusted to human beds. I grabbed my jacket and smoothed out some of the wrinkles, and put it back on. I slung my bag over my shoulder and picked up my bag from the corner of the room. I took one last glance around the room, making sure that I had got everthing. Now, to wake up Spiri...

I shook her gently on the shoulder, and jumped back, covering my face in case she did something with the pyschic energy. The energy dissipated, and Spiri fell back onto the bed. She groaned a little, and then sat straight up. "We leaving?" she asked, combing down her bed-hair with her fingers.

"Yeah, Juniper shoud have brought those Pokemon in by now. I'm not sure which one to take," I said as I headed down the stairs. On the kitchen table, there was a green box, with a note attached. "Screw the note," I muttered as I tore the lid off. Inside were three Pokeballs.

"I always have been curious about why humans see the need to confine innocent creatures inside thos balls, and force them to battle," Spiri asked, as she glanced into the box.

"Well, for one thing, it's fun." I picked up the balls that had the fire emblem and the water emblem on it. "If I were to take the water type, it could learn Ice Beam, and that would be able to take out the weakness to grass. What do you think?"

"You should take the grass type. It's a Snivy."

I set down the water ball and picked up the one with the leaf on it. "Why?"

"I don't know. I thought you would want that one, since last time you picked the water type."

"Well, sure why not." I pressed the button, and watched as a small green lizard like Pokemon materialize. It looked around the room, and then saw me. "Snivy, I guess I'm your trainer," I said. It shrugged and stood there, doing nothing.

My aunt then walked through the door, holding grocery bags in each hand. She smiled as she saw the Snivy. "Is that the one you chose?" I nodded. "It's so cute." Snivy looked at her, and sighed.

"Where do you want these, ma'am?" a new voice asked. In the doorway there was a boy about my age, and he had navy hair and a blue jacket, and he was holding two bags filled with various items.

"Just set them on the counter. Thanks!" My aunt began to unload the groceries into the fridge, and the boy walked over to me.

"I assume that you are the other trainer that will be traveling around," he said.

"Yep." He held out his hand. "Name's Cheren." I shook his hand, "I'm Trevor and this is Spiri." She just waved, and I glanced at the two remaining Pokeballs, and I could almost tell which one he was going to pick.

Cheren took the other two Pokeballs, and stared at the label, then down at Snivy. "I'll take this one," and he put the one with the water emblem on it back onto the table.

_Of course. He chose the fire type after I chose the grass. What a beginner. _I smiled and asked, "Who gets the last one.

"Bianca, and she should get here soon," Cheren answered, sending out his Pokemon, Tepig. The fire pig looked around and saw Snivy. "Hey, wanna play?" he asked Snivy.

"Good heavens, no," Snivy responded in a British accent. Of course, Spiri was the only one who could understand them.

"Sorry I'm late!" A blonde girl with a green hat and vest ran over.

Cheren rolled his eyes. "Bianca, you've always been late. Every day of your life."

Bianca smacked him, getting a laugh out of Spiri. We introduced our selves to her, and she took the last Pokemon, an Oshawatt.

"Well," Bianca said. "Now that we're all trainers, we should battle! Trevor, you and me go first. Winner gets Cheren!"

"Fine, you take first move." Bianca smiled and sent out her Oshawatt. "Shaw, use tackle!" The water weasal thing charged at Snivy, well, tackling him.

_Who would name an Oshawatt Shaw? _I thought. "Ivy, use leer!" Snivy stared at the Oshawatt, and the move lowered the water Pokemon's defense.

"Shaw, use tackle again!"

Ivy, use Leer!" The attacks hit at the same time, sending the Pokemon flying into the table legs, breaking them. The contents of the table slid to the floor.

"Shaw, use tackle one more time!"

"And Ivy, use Leer again!" The tackling Shaw made both Pokemon airborne, crashing into a potted plant, knocking it over and spilling dirt everywhere.

"You do know that Leer isn't an attack, right?" Cheren asked. "All it does is...oh. Clever."

"What?" Bianca questioned. "What does it do?"

"It lowers the opponets defense," I responded. "Ivy, use tackle!" Ivy jumped at the Oshawatt, crashing into it with great force. The impact sent them both into an armchair. and knocked it over. Oshawatt was out cold.

"Well, I guess you win," Bianca said, smiling.

"Yeah, and the room got redecorated," Spiri commented, looking around the room.

"What do you mean..holy shit," I said, as I saw the room and all the damage we had caused.

Cheren turned to me. "Since the room can't get any worse, It's your turn." Bianca used a potion on Ivy, healing him.

"Snivy use Leer!"

"Use Growl, Tepig!"

Well, the attacks negated each other, since Leer loweres defense, and Growl lowered attack. New tactic. "Ivy use Tackle!" The grass reptile tackled the offending fire pig. That is a wierd sentence. The pig was knocked back.

"Tepig, use scratch!" The pig slashed Ivy, and Ivy retaliated with a tackle. The battle was still even. "Ivy, use tackle!" I just wanted this to all end, so I could get on with the League Challenge.

Tepig scratched Ivy as he got close, and the Ivy went down, out cold. Bianca rushed over with healing supplies, and I shook Cheren's hand. "Good battle," I praised him.

He smiled. "Thanks."

Then we noticed my aunt standing, mouth hung open at the messed up room. "Sup," I said, making the situation even more akward.

"I thought I heard Pokemon cries, so I came to investigate, and this..." She was at a loss for words.

"We'll help clean it up," Bianca offered. My aunt smiled and shook her head. "I remember my first battle. It was so exciting..." Her mind dirfted off for a second. "I clean it up. I have nothing else better to do anyway. Juniper said that she wanted to see you all in her lab, so off you go."

As we headed for the door, my aunt stopped me. "Your mom sent you this," She said as she handed me a Crosstransevier. "Now off you go."

I opened the door, and walked out into the summer day. There was a gentle breeze, and a few bird Pokemon flew off into the sky. Spiri came out behind me, having no other options other than to follow me. It was the start of a new journey.

_**A/N: Like I said, this is a repost. I will be taking OC's, so if you have one, PM me.**_

_**Please R&R!**_

_**Peace out!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two : Deja Vu

Nuvema Town is one of the smallest towns in the entire Unova reigon. But, it was still a large town compared to Twinleaf Town. So finding Juniper's lab was easier said than done. Of course, in Twinleaf Town, the Pokemon Lab was in an entirely different town, making that less confusing.

"Seriously, like where the hell is it?" I was starting to get fustrated after Spiri and I had found out that we had walked in one big circle for the third time. Ivy was back in his ball that was clipped to my belt.

"If you can't find your way around a town, you have no business being a trainer," Spiri commented. I shot her a look. "Like you could do any better," I shot back. She smirked and walked off. I followed her.

In less than five minutes, she lead me right to the lab. _She has to be a bitch, doesn't she? _

"You do know that I can read people's minds, right?" she stated. I rolled my eyes. Of course she could.

Cheren was waiting outside of the lab, tossing Tepig's Pokeball back and forth between his hands. "What kept you?" he asked as we walked up.

"Well, we kinda got lost." Spiri shot me a look. "Fine. _I _got lost."

Cheren sighed, and said "Well, you still got here before Bianca. As if that's an achievement."

I looked around, and sure enough, Bianca wasn't there. "Where is she? I'll get her."

"She's probably still at her house," Cheren said. "You know, I've been standing here for almost an hour. You better hurry, I hate waiting."

"I go as fast as I can." It took me over half an hour to even find her house. As I approached the door, voices came from the open window. Being the nosy person that I am, I evesdropped.

"No! A thousand time no!"

"But daddy please!"

"No! No! No!"

"I want to go out into the world, and find out what I want to be."

"But it's dangerous out there, you could get hurt."

"But I want to go, and you can't stop me!" There was an angry stomping and the door flew open, Bianca stormed out, and slammed the door behind her. Then she noticed me. "Oh...hi." She noticed the partially opened window. "I guess that you heard that."

I nodded sympathetically. "Yeah," I unzipped my bag, and reached down into the mess of extra clothes and whatnot, and pulled a smushed up baox of tissues out. "It's not in perfect condition, but it'll have to do," I said as I handed it to her.

Bianca smiled slightly and took one. "Thanks. This is just a secret between you and me, right?" Bianca asked as she dabbed her eyes. I nodded.

The sun was high in the sky, signaling that it was noon. Half a day wasted just trying to get a Pokedex, and get on with the adventure.

_It won't and adventure if you are running from the past. _The stupid voice reminded me.

_Well, think of something to say that sounds smart to Bianca, that could cheer her up. _I thought/asked back. In the meantime I asked; "You know where Juniper's lab is, right?"

"Yeah. It'll only be a five-minute walk. I know a shortcut," she responded, and took off. I face-palmed. Really? A five minute walk. It had taken me a half-hour to find her house. Damn, I really need a map.

"It's about time," Cheren said as Bianca and I walked up to the lab. Spiri appeared to be meditating, and Cheren was still tossing the ball back and forth.

"Well, now that we're all here, lets go into the lab, shall we?" I asked as I pulled the door open. The inside was exactly as I had expected it. Several machines, many computers, and countless pieces of paper scattered around the room. Juniper was standing in front of a table, and there were three Pokedexes on it.

"Welcome! As you all know, I am Professer Juni-"

"We already know your name. Professor," Cheren inturrupted. His anticipation was quite obivious.

"Well, this is a special occasion, so we should keep things formal," Juniper said. "I am Professor Juniper, and I research Pokemon here in this lab. You three are about to being a long journey." She picked up the three Pokedexes, and handed one to each of us. "And I would like to collect information to assist in my studies."

"I'd be glad to help," Bianca said. Cheren and I nodded.

"Now, the Pokedex will automatically record any information on the Pokemon that you meet, so long as you scan it. I will meet you at Route One, and show you how to catch Pokemon." Juniper walked out of the lab, leaving us standing there.

"Well, lets go," Cheren deadpanned. We walked out of the lab, and right outside was my aunt, holding three pieces of folded paper.

"Hi," I greeted as we walked out ot meet her. She smiled and handed us each one of the folded paper. I glared down at it, and saw the words; Town Map. Hell yeah! A freakin' map!

"I found these when I was cleaning up, and I thought that you could use them more than I could," my aunt explained. "So here you go."

"Thanks!" Bianca, Cheren and I said at the same time.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your journey." My aunt looked at me. "When you reach Nimbasa, can you check in on Trent? I want to know how his team is doing."

"Sure. Goodbye!" I shouted as I took off running toward Route One, Bianca and Cheren walking causally behind me.

"Lets take our first steps out into Route One together!" Bianca suddenly shouted. "It'll be a momentous occasion, so we will have to make it memorable."

I skidded to a stop a few feet from the sign for the route. "Fine, just hurry," I said, my eagerness completely obivious. Bianca stood in between Cheren and I, and inter-linked our arms together. We took the first steps into the route.

"See? Wasn't that exciting?" Bianca asked, smiled wide than a Wailord.

"How? We took a few steps?" Cheren responded, not caring.

"The first few steps of our new lives!" Bianca shouted. The Professor was standing in some tall grass, Pokeball in hand. Next to her was Spiri. Ah crap, I forgot about her. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"Now that you're all here, I will tell you that catching a Pokemon isn't all that hard. Observe." The Professor released a Pokemon from the Pokeball, and I instantly scanned it. Cheren and Bianca followed, taking a few seconds to find the scan button.

It was a Minccino, the Chinchilla Pokemon. Apparently, they used their tails for dusting and cleaning. A wild Pokemon crawled slowly by, one that kinda reminded me of a Bidoof. I scanned it, and it was a Patrat. Minccino engaged the wild Pokemon.

"Use scratch!" Juniper ordered, and the Chinchilla slashed the wild Patrat, which brought it to retailiation. It lunged at Minccino, using tackle. Juniper cut the tackle short by throwing a Pokeball. It hit the ground, absorbing the rat in red light, and rolled on the ground. After a short struggle, the ball clicked shut.

"See, it's not too hard. Just make sure that the wild Pokemon's health is low. Should try to get it lower than what I had." Juniper said. "Here, you'll each get five Pokeballs to use. Oh, and try to inflict status condtions. That can help. Allright, then, goodbye. I'll meet you at Accumula Town." Juniper shouted as she walked away.

"I have an idea!" The peppy Bianca shouted out suddenly.

"Please, we shouldn't keep the Professor waiting," Cheren said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Just listen! This'll be fun! We are going to have a contest to see who can catch the most Pokemon! The winner will be decided when we get to Accumula!"

"That does sound interesting. Fine I'm in," Cheren said. He turned to me. "What about you?"

I nodded. "I'll do it."

"Then, go! Bianca yelled as she took off running into the tall grass. Cheren took off in a different direction, and I stood still. "Noobs," I muttered to myself.

Spiri walked over. "You know, you forgot me."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I'm sorry. But, on the bright side, I got a new map, so I can't get lost." I held up the paper so she could see it.

Spiri sighed. "I have bad news. I just heard from Azelf that Giratina was caught."

"What? By who?" I asked.

"I don't know. But I heard that it happened some time ago, and that Arceus was covering it up. Covering up the fact that Giratina went willing with the trainer."

"That's...bad, right?" I questioned her. It sounded bad, but it couldn't really be all that bad could it?

"If Giratina uses that trainer's body as a host, he could easily walk the earth with his full power. At least that trainer doesn't have the Griseous Orb. Right?"

I stuck my hand down into my bag, bypassing several packs of peanut butter crackers, until my hand hit the stone. "Yeah, I still have it."

Spiri sighed. "Don't let go of it. Now you have to catch a Pokemon."

I released Ivy from his ball, and we dashed into the tall grass, with Spiri standing behind. _There's that feeling again. As if there is a powerful Pokemon nearby. _She looked up at me, who was staring at her. Something clicked. _It can't be. It's a coincidence. It has to be._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Liberation

"Okay, Ivy! Use Tackle!" The grass snake Pokemon tackled the wild dog Pokemon that had just crossed my path. I had my Pokedex in my had, and I reached for an empty Pokeball. I scanned the wild Pokmon.

It was a Lillipup. Screwing the data that the Pokedex had on Lillipups, I odered Ivy to tackle it again. The two collided, and I threw the Pokeball. Lillipup was encased inside, and the ball hit the ground. It rolled once, twice, thrice, and click!

Releasing the breath that I had been holding, I picked up the ball. "Hey, Spiri, you know any good names for a Lillipup?"

"Not really." She said it completely emotionless, staring at me with cold eyes. "What?" I asked. She shrugged and turned her attention to a Patrat walking by.

I shrugged. Whatever. "I think I'll call you Bark!" I told Lillipup, as I released it from its ball. Bark looked around, and saw Ivy. He wagged his tiny tail, and playfully tackled the grass type. Ivy struggled to get out from under the puppy, but it was to no avail.

"Well, at least you two like each other," I commented at the sight. Ivy looked at me with one of those 'I'm gonna kill you' looks. "Lets go, we don't want to keep Cheren and Bianca waiting."

Ivy scampered up my leg, and then climbed onto my head. Bark tugged at the leg of my jeans with his mouth. I rolled my eyes, and picked him up. "I'm only doing this because someday you'll be too big for me to carry, I hope."

Mespirit walked behind us most of the trek, and we finally reached the town after ten minutes. As expected, Cheren and Bianca were standing there, each holding two Pokeballs. "I see that you caught a Lillipup! So did I!" Bianca exclaimed, holding up a Pokeball.

Cheren adjusted his glasses. "In that case, it looked like we all tied. Now we should go find Professor Juniper." The four of us walked into town, Spiri still keeping her distance.

Juniper was standing in front of the Pokemon Center, looking bored as we walked up. "Ah, I glad you made it," she said. Apparently taking notice of each trainer having a new Pokemon, she said; "I'm glad that you caught new Pokemon. That should keep your first ones company, and widen your team's horizons."

Never heard it put that way before. But, meh. She continued on, "This is a Pokemon Center, where you can rest your wounded or fainted Pokemon. All for free!"

"I already know all that," Cheren said. "I'm going to look around town." As he walked off, you could see the slight disappointment in Juniper's face. Her smile returned a second later, though.

"Why don't you two go try it out? I'll show you around the inside!" The automatic glass doors slid open, allowing us access, and we walked in. The first thing that I noticed was that the Poke Store was built in to the Center, making it easier to get to than it was in other regions.

"That is the Poke Store," Juniper guestured to the counter to the right of the enterance. There were two shop attendants behind the counter, watching something on one of thier laptops. I really hoped that it wasn't porn, but hey, in this screwed up world, who knew?

"And this is the place where you can get your Pokemon healed," she said as she walked up to the curved counter in the center of the Center. "Go on, try it. Its free." I discreetly rolled my eyes as I walked up to the counter, and returned my Pokemon to their balls.

"It won't take long, young man," the woman behind the counter said, as I put the two balls into the provided tray. I almost wanted to die. I already knew this shit, and here I was having to act like a noob.

She took the tray and put it into a machine. A golden glow washed over the two balls, and a few seconds later, she handed them back to me. "There you go! All happy and healthy! Please come back soon!"

"Okay, thanks," I said with as much fake enthusiasm as possible.

"Now that you know all this, I'll leave for the time being. Goodbye!" Juniper walked out the doors, and Bianca ran over to the store, causing the clerks to look up from the computer. "Oooh! What should I buy first?"

I shook my head sadly. I knew from experience that girls tend to spend a lot of their money on clothes and accessories for their Pokemon. Over half of my winnings during my Sinnoh journey had gone to those. Dawn was quite the spender. And now she was gone. I hated her for disappearing...but yet...

_But yet you still love her... _Let's not forget about the voice in my head.

_You left me out in the cold when I asked you for help with Bianca. You ditched me._

_So? You made it through. And besides, would you think that I would know anything about feelings?_

_Fuck off. _

_Fucking off._

Sometimes I hated that Pokemon. But he was still pretty useful, although I honestly doubted that I would use him anytime soon. I walked out the doors, and began to look for Spiri. A large crowd had gathered around a large hill, with people wearing weird knight suits. I saw Cheren in the crowd, and went to join him.

"You know what's going on?" I asked as I reached him. He shook his head. The man on the hill wearing the most queer cape that I had ever seen began to talk.

"Ladies and gentlemen! I, Ghetsis of Team Plasma would like to thank you for listening to what we have to say. This shouldn't take long at all." He paced to the left and continued. "For all your lives, you all knew that living with Pokemon was a great thing. Then going on a journey and so on. But what you didn't know was that you were enslaving the Pokemon you catch. I come before you today to talk about Pokemon Liberation."

Whispers and mutters went on throughout the crowd. "Libertation?"

"Yes, liberation. Whenever you catch a Pokemon, you take them from their friends, family, and their lives. You force them to fight one another, against their will, and they often get stuck in Pokeballs for long periods of time. Listen to what I say. It is something to think about, but consider releasing you Pokemon. That is all I have to say." The wierd knights began to pack up the flags, and they left in a neatly fashion, flanking Ghetsis on every side.

"Have we really been making them suffer? I want my Pattyrat to be happy. The Patrat next to the woman who had spoken rubbed against his trainers leg affectionently.

I peered through the crowd, but I didn't see Spiri. Great, she wandered off. This wasn't good. Arceus is gonna kill me.

"I think what that guy said was total bullshit." I knew that voice. I turned and saw my blonde rival from Sinnoh, Anthony.

"It's been a while. About three months," I said, glad to finally see a familiar face.

He nodded. "Yeah. I got bored in Sinnoh, so I came to find my friend." He smacked my shoulder. "Why don't we go and party until the sun sets?"

"I would, but this is Accumula Town. There's nothing to party with, or a place to party at," I responded. It was typical of him to always party. That's who he was. My tone became serious. "Any luck?"

He sighed. "We haven't been able to find a portal to the Distortion World, and the expedition teams don't work for free. Even though you have a million or two, it won't cover explorations for very long."

Damn. I had funded several explorations in an attempt to gain access to the Distortion World, but with Giratina there, it had been difficult. He and I finally met again, a year after the events of Spear Pillar. Things this time had ended differently.

"Excuse me." The voice came from behind us, and I turned before Cheren could ask about what me and Anthony had been talking about. There was a man, with long green hair, and some wierd cube shape necklace hanging out of his pocket. He was wearing a black cap, and a tan jacket with matching pants. "Just now, your Pokemon, it was saying..."

"Whoa, slow down. You talk too fast," Cheren told the man. "And what's this about Pokemon talking?"

"Oh, you can't hear it then. How sad." Cheren was right. This dude did talk pretty fast. "I am N. I am wandering around, listening to people's opinions of truths and ideals. But, that aside, please, loet me hear the voice of your Pokemon again!"

N sent out a cat like Pokemon, one I didn't recognize. I reached for my Pokedex and scanned it. The cat was a Purrloin, so I sent out my newest recruit, Bark.

"Bark, use Tackle!" The puppy ran up to the cat, and tackled it. "Use Scratch!" N ordered his Purrloin. The cat lashed its claws out and struck Bark, causing him to wince in pain.

"Growl!" Bark released a growl, which for a tiny little Lillipup like him almost sounded pathetic. But it still lowered the opponents defense. "Use Scratch again!" Purrloin ran over and struck out with its claws, but Bark was able to avoid them. "Use Tackle!" Bark plowed into the cat, and sent it flying backwards, to the feet of N, knocked out.

N returned it to the ball. "Pokemon battles are all about my friends getting hurt. Your Lillipup fought and won, at the injury of Purrloin. It's unfair. Pokemon shouldn't have to suffer. I will do something about it." N walked off, and left us standing there in wonder.

"That was wierd," I commented. Anthony and Cheren nodded.

"I'm going to go ahead, and attempt to get my first badge," Cheren said as he took off toward Route 2.

I waved to him, and headed for the Pokemon Center, and Anthony followed. Bianca was still shopping in the store, which reminded me to get some potions. I walked up to the lady, and handed her my Pokeballs, and bought as many potions as I could with what little money I had.

"Well, I'm outta here. I have to find a place to party. Castelia? Maybe get in a few battles," Anthony said as he ran, literally ran out of the door.

The lady gave my Pokemon back, and I released them from the balls. "All right, let's go!" We headed out the doors, and out into the city. Bianca had already left. I searched the city for an hour, trying to find Spiri, but she was nowhere in sight. So I headed on, knowing that she could find me if there was trouble.

The sun had started to set as I reached Route 2. "Looks like we have to camp out, guys," I told Bark and Ivy. I tossed my bag down, and took my jacket off. When in need, jackets double as blankets. I tore open a pack of peanut butter crackers, and offered half to each Pokemon.

Bark ate through his in a few bites, and Ivy savored his. I ripped open a pack for myself, noting that I had wierd addictions when I traveled. In Sinnoh, it had been peppermints. Now it was peanut butter crackers. I leaned back on my bag-pillow, and one thought drifted through my mind.

_I am alone. All alone._

Ivy crawled under my jacket, and fell asleep pretty fast. Bark curled at in a ball at my feet, and soon I drifted off to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Meetings

All the legendaries had gathered at Spear Pillar. Arceus had summoned them all for a rare meeting with him. They all awaited their master patiently.

Groudon and Kyoge were separated by Rayquaza, and Dialga and Palkia were glaring at each other. Azelf and Uxie were in their humans forms, waiting for Mespirit. Ho-oh was perched on one pillar, and Lugia was on the one opposite of it, with Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres on the ground beneath it.

Regirock, Regice, and Registeel were standing under Regigigas, the one who had created them. Mew, Deoxys, and Jirachi were off chatting in the corner. Suicune, Entei, and Raikou were casually chilling. Latios and Latias raced each other around the tip of the Mount Coronet. Tornadus, Thundorus, and Landorus levitated queitly. Terrakion, Virizon, and Cobalion stood ready to fight, should the need arise. Two dragons, one black, one white, calmly stood at the back of the group. The dragons were just shadow, as they hadn't been awakened yet, and their spirits were there, not their physical bodies.

"I bring you all bad news," Arceus said as he appeared as a white flame with green eyes. "As you may know, Giratina was captured." The legends stared on, trying to appear unshocked by the news. "It happened sometime ago, around three months. Our prime suspects are-"

"Sorry I'm late," Mespirit said, as she ran up the stairs and onto the ruins. "I still haven't gotten used to this damned human body."

"It was for a good cause that you are trapped in that body. You know why."

She sighed. "It's because you want me to spy on Trevor. And I have to play along on that stupid deal thing."

"As I was saying, our prime suspects are, as follows; Nicholas Quadur, the human who captured Darkrai, Myla Gethis, the human that captured Mewtwo, and Trevor. The first two are renown as Legendary Hunters, hunting us down and capturing us all for money."

The legendaries looked among themselves, and noted that Darkrai and Mewtwo were indeed missing. "I have also noticed that Heatran, Shaymin, and Cressilia are missing." The white flame floated over to the middle of the group. "I want you all to return to the regions that I assigned you to, and keep an eye out for the two humans. Mespirit, you are to continue as you are. I do not trust Trevor. and you must keep an eye on him."

"Yes sir," she replied.

The white flame floated over to her. "I absolutely positive that he doesn't have Giratina, but he most likely knows the person who does. I'm willing to bet that the second meeting that Trevor had with Giratina might have had vauleble info that we need to know. It will be your job to get it."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

_Blackness all around us. She was ahead of me, staring at me, with an emotionless face. It was the same nightmare that I had had for the past few months. It was a plauge._

_She stood there, then walked toward me. She reached her hand out to me, and I took it. I was pulled closer to her, and she planted a full kiss on my lips. We broke apart after a few seconds, only for her to be torn away by a purple shpere of energy..._

I slowly opened my eyes, I kept hearing a voice that seemed a thousand miles away. standing over me was a girl, about fourteen, as old as I was. She had violet hair tied into a ponytail, with a red ribbon holding it in place. She was wearing a shorts and a red tank top, with fingerless biker gloves.

"Are you okay? I saw you flipping out in your sleep, so I thought I'd see what was wrong." She held her hand out to me. "I'm Nikki. Nikki Maddison."

I shook her hand. "I'm Trevor...Murphy." It wasn't my real last name. After all, I was a Champion in disguise. I stood up and put my jacket on, brushing off the dirt and cracker crumbs.

"Hey, this might sound slightly strange, but can I take a picture of you Pokemon?" She held up a camera, and guestured to Ivy and Bark. The two were curled up next to each other, something that they wouldn't like, bacause they seemed to hate each other.

"Uh...sure? Why?" I asked. It was a perfectly reasonable question.

"I am among the best of the Pokemon Photograpghers," She replied as she tried to find the perfect angle. Pokemon Photographers. Seems legit."Oh, and I can follow you into the city? Kip's not currently not in fighting shape, and, you know how wild Pokemon are."

"Yeah. Mudkips eventually evolve into-"

"Who said anything about a Mudkip?"

"Isn't Kip a Mudkip?" I asked. After all, in my two days in Unova, none of the Pokemon I had met had been given creative names. Ivy the Snivy, Bark the Lillipup, Shaw the Oshawatt, Pattyrat the Patrat.

"Kip is a Skitty."

"Oh."

The camera flashed, causing Ivy and Bark to wake up, and they stared at each other, before Ivy smacked Bark with a vine. Hey, Ivy learned Vine Whip! Not exactly under the circumstances that I would have wanted but, hey, what floats you boat.

"Well, breakfast time!" I shouted, causing my Pokemon to cheer up. I reached down into by bag, and found a pack of Ramen Noodles. If you're trying to hide the fact that you are a Champion, you might as well not eat like one. I brought out a small pot, and a bottle of water, and filled the pot with the water. How else would you make Ramen Noodles?

"Can you gather some wood for a small campfire?" I asked Nikki. After all, if you traveled with me, you'd have to be ready to do some work. With all the fighting evil Teams to cooking, it was one hell of an experience.

"Sure." She walked over to a nearby tree, and climbed it in a few seconds. Breaking off branches was pretty easy, and she tossed them down to me, before she hopped down. "There."

"Impressive," I said as I gathered the branches. "You wouldn't happen to have a match would you?"

A second later, the match was thrown on the branches, and we had a pretty small fire, just enough to cook the Ramen Noodles.

"So, tell me about yourself, Nikki. If we're going to travel together, we need to know more about each other."

"You talk as if you and I are going the entire way to the Pokemon League together. I just need to get to Striaton City," Nikki replied.

_That's just talk. She might actaully want a traveling partner. _The voice said. I'll just call him Voi.

_Long time, no see. And I was enjoying it. _I thought/said back.

_Just ask her how she truly feels. You'll see that I'm right._

_I thought you said that you weren't good with feelings._

_Fuck off, dumbass._

_Fucking off. _I rolled my eyes, and turned back to Nikki. "Is that how you really feel? That going alone is what you want to do?"

She sighed, "I don't know. I mean, sure, I want someone to travel with. But we've only just met, and it might seem akward. And most people insult me."

"Why? You seem like a nice person to me."

"'Cause I'm sorta a tomboy. It's just something that happened. I was-"

"That's fine by me. I usually always get stuck with a too girly girl." I sighed as I remembered the good old days of Sinnoh.

"You burnt the noodles," Spiri said, as she walked out of the trees. I was actually kinda glad to see her. Arceus was not gonna kill me after all. "Who's that?" She pointed at Nikki.

"Uh, Nikki, meet Spiri, Spiri Lake. Spiri, this is Nikki Maddison. She's going to be traveling with us for...well, as long as she feels."

Spiri took me off into the corner. "Isn't it a little bit dangerous? I mean, look at what happened to your last girlfriend."

I could understand what she was saying, but I was lonely. Traveling around with a Legendary isn't the same as traveling with a real trainer. "Team Galactic has disbanded, and there's no one out to get me. Dawn...she did what she thought was right."

"I'll leave you to your desicions," Spiri said, and she squatted down to Ivy and Bark, who had engaged in another muttered something uniterpretable, and the two Pokemon looked up at her, then to Nikki, and nodded. "You Pokemon approve."

I nodded. Then my stomach growled. Damn, I burned the noodles. But hey, at least I had another trainer to talk to for a little while. It might not be permenant, though.

* * *

_**A/N: The OC character Nikki Maddison was created by Antex-The Legendary Zoroark.**_

_**Please drop a review, and give me your honest opinion of the story.**_

_**Peace out!**_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Another Day, Another Battle

Nikki helped me pack up my things while Spiri watched, and we continued, all three of us in silence. Ivy was walking on my left side, and Bark was trotting along on my right. Straiton City was in view, and we had just reached the city when...

"Oh! Hi Trevor and comapny!" Bianca ran up to us. "Let's have a Pokemon battle! Pleeeease? The Pokemon I caught have become a little stronger! Ready or not, here I come!"

Sheesh. I mean like, come on! I was almost in the city. Spiri and Nikki smiled and waved, and walked into Straiton. Nikki was most likey going to get Kip healed, and I had no idea where Spiri was going.

"Okay," I squatted down, and patted Bark on the head. "You're up. Go get 'em!"

"Aww, is that your Lillipup?" Bianca asked, looking at Bark. _No, that's my Charizard. Of course that's my Lillipup! _I screamed in my head. "Meet Lilly!" Bianca sent out her Lillipup.

"Bark, use Leer!" I shouted, and he kinda glared at Lilly.

"Not falling for that again! Lilly use Tackle!" Lilly charged at Bark, and pounced on him.

"Use Bite!" It was Bark newest moves. Bark bit down on Lilly while she was on top of him. At least they weren't...never mind.

"Lilly use Leer!" Lilly looked at Bark, and back-stepped to Bianca. "Have a taste of your own medicene!"

I rolled my eyes. "Bark, Tackle, then Bite!" He tackled Lilly, and bit her on the neck at the same time. Double effective. Boom. Knockout.

"You did fine, Lilly," Bianca whispered as she returned her Pokemon to its ball. "Go, Shaw!" The little otter came out into the field, and I withdrew Bark. "Ivy, get in there and cause some damage." He chirped, and ran out.

"Ivy, use Vine Whip!" A vine flung out of his tail, and bitch-slapped Shaw, dealing more damage to it, since it was a Grass Type move.

"Shaw, use Water Gun!" Shaw pathetically sprayed Ivy with water, dealing half damage, since it was a water move used on a Grass Type.

"Once more with Vine Whip!" The vines lashed out and struck Shaw, dealing the finishing blow. I had won with no casulties. In fairness, I was the Sinnoh Champion.

"Woo-Hoo!" Bianca shouted, making wonder if she was mentally stable. "You are a tough cookie, Trevor. I'm gonna work hard on training my Pokemon so we don't lose to you anymore! Okay, bye-bye!" She ran off just as she had come.

I breathed a deep sigh, and released it. Time for Straiton City. Finally, my first Unova badge. But, my first destination was the Pokemon Center. It was located in between two large buildings, on of them had a man blocking the entrance. I headed inside, and Nikki was sitting at a table, reading a newspaper. I handed my Pokemon to the lady, and went over to my firend.

"Any good news?" I asked as I sat down.

"Not really," Nikki replied. "Three children vanished in Sinnoh, that's probably the worst of it."

"I guess that's bad, but I won-oh shit!" I jumped out of my chair, and fell to the floor, holding my leg.

"What happened?" Everyone in the Pokemon Center was staring at me.

"You Skitty scratched me!" I yelled to Nikki, and Kip the Skitty crawled out from under the table, with what appeared to be a smile.

"Like that would kill you," Nikki responded, defending Kip.

"Um...your Pokemon are ready." The nurse said. I stood up and retrieved them.

"To the Gym!" I over dramatically shouted, and everyone stared at me again.

"Don't we have to find your other friend first?" Nikki asked, killing the mood. Rats. The automatic doors opened, permitting us to leave. Fortuantly, Spiri was waiting outside. "What kept you?" she asked.

"Well, you see, there was the fact that...I don't know," I admitted. The Gym was as I expected. It was the tall building to the right of the Center, and the dude was still standing in front of the door. "Excuse me, but can we go through?"

"I'm sorry, but the Gym Leader isn't in right now. He could be in the Trainer's School. If you want to challenge him, please go find him."

I sighed, and pulled out my map. "Really?" I asked myself, and looked up. According to the map, the Trainer's School was on the other side of the Center. It was in plain sight. The interior was almost similar to that of the one in Jubilife. Cheren was at the chalkboard in the front of the room.

"Who is the Gym Leader?" Nikki asked, glancing at all the people in the room.

"It's quite simple. Just look for the most stupidly dressed person in here. Chances are they are the Leader," I answered. I walked up behind Cheren, and looked at the board. It was stuff I already knew. Poison, Paralyzed, Asleep, Burned, and Frozen. It was the basics.

"Hey Trevor." Cheren said as he turned toward me. "Have you come looking for the Gym Leader?"

"Yeah, where is he?"

Cheren adjusted his glasses. "He was here talking about Pokemon types until just a few moments ago... Maybe you walked right passed him?" Not a possibilty. Had I passed a Gym Leader, I would know it. Look for the stupid clothes.

"By the way, Trevor, will you have a battle with me? I want to test how important items are in battles."

"Sure, why not. Train my Pokemon before my first Gym battle." I took out Bark's Pokeball.

Cheren smiled. "Well, let's see how effective my items are... Or maybe I should test how well I battle without items...? Anyway, this is an indoor match, so let's battle without getting too rough!"

Cheren released Tepig from his Pokeball, and I sent out Bark.

"Use Leer!"

"Tepig use Ember!" As Bark glared at the pig, Tepig shot out tiny embers in the puppy's general direction.

Bark was hit by a few, but shook them off. "Use Bite!" I commanded Bark. He charged at Tepig, and bit down on him, causing the pig to squeal.

"Use Ember!" Cheren shouted. Bark managed to avoid the tiny fireballs.

"Bite!" Once more, Bark bit down on Tepig. Since it had used Leer earlier, Tepig's defence was decreased, and this was the final attack. Tepig fell to the ground, knocked out.

"You did your best, Tepig," Cheren muttered as he returned Tepig to the ball. He sent out his other Pokemon, a Purrloin.

"Purrloin, use Scratch!" Since Bark was already weakened from Tepig, he fell all to easliy to the scratching claws.

"Go Ivy!" The grass snake appeared on the ground, prepared to fight. "Use Vine Whip!" Ivy lashed out with the vines, striking Purrloin in the face.

"Now, Purrloin use Scratch again!" Ivy took a full claw right in the stomach, and fell to the ground. After a few grunts of pain, he managed to stand.

"Come on, Ivy. Finish this with another Vine Whip!" The vines smacked the cat in the face, causing Purrloin to jump back, hissing in pain. "Scratch," Cheren ordered simply. It appears that he thought he was about to win. Time to finish this Sinnoh style.

"Ivy, dodge the Scratch, and use Wrap!" Ivy was hit by the Purrloin's claws, but managed to endure the hit. Ivy then shout vines around the Purrloin's feet, effectively trapping it. "Finish it with Vine Whip!" Ivy lashed out for the final time, knocking out Purrloin.

Cheren sighed, but he seemed cool about losing. "So, learning to use items well is definitely important, then." He smiled and reached into his bag. "Here, have these berries." They were Oran berries as far as I knew. I accepted them with thanks.

"Using this berry will heal the Pokemon holding it. Well, good luck in your Gym battle!" He turned back to the black board, reading what was written there.

"Allright! To the Gym!"

_Another has fallen. Seven have been captured. _Voi said/thought.

_What do you mean?_

_Another Legendary has been captured. If this is not stopped, it could lead to the end of the world._

Meanwhile...

A dark haired trainer walked over to the Master Ball laying on the ground. "That makes three," He said as he put the Master Ball on his belt. "Darkrai, let's blow this party." The Trainer and Darkrai left the cave in silence, another Legendary captured.

Elsewhere, in Sinnoh...

Palkia floated high above the human city. For some reason, he felt a certain connection to it. Like a part of him belonged down there. He couldn't place his claw on it, though.

_That's my home. Sandgem Town..._ Palkia had a voice in his head, and it was that of a human. He knew exactly where he had picked it up. He had picked it up through Gar-duno, which was when a Legendary absorbed a human body. Not only would it bestow upon them the memories and the thoughts of that human, as well as their voice in your head, but it would boost a Legendary's power.

Palkia ignored the voice. It was the price you had to pay for power. Power over Dialga. Power that would be unleashed soon...


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: First Badges

Instead of that dude that was originally blocking the door, there was now a waiter dude with green hair blocking the door to the Gym. "Hey, um...are you the Gym Leader?" I asked.

"Yes, I am a Gym Leader of this town. You are...?"

"I'm Trevor, and I want to challenge the Gym." I responded.

He rolled his eyes. "Right, of course you're here to challenge the Gym. In that case, what was the first Pokemon that you chose?"

"Why do you care?" I wondered. "But if you have to know, Snivy."

"Snivy...I see. It's weak against Fire-Type Pokemon. I think you need to prepare to face that type." He pointed to the northeast of the Gym. "For example, try training your Pokemon in the Dreamyard. Please excuse me now." The man turned and walked into the Gym.

"That was weird," I commented, as I brushed my hair over my ear.

"Tell me about it," Nikki replied. "Well, are you going to challenge it, or train?"

That was a thinker. I could train now, and buff up Ivy and Bark for the Gym Leader, or I could rush in now, and most likely get my butt kicked. When I battled Roark, I had the type advantage, but this dude had said something about Fire-Types. Rushing in now would be stupid.

I rushed into the Gym. The Gym's interior was quite different than what I imagined. It was in the form of a cafe, which then reminded me that I hadn't eaten at all that day, since I had burned my noodles. That was a weird sentence.

The first guy that had been blocking the door was in there now, standing to the side of the door. He ran over to me as I walked forward. "Hello! I'm Clyde."

"Um...hi Clyde?"

"I'm the guide for Trainers challenging a Pokemon Gym," Clyde continued. "We appreciate your challenging the Gym. Take this to commemorate the occasion." He handed me a bottle of Fresh Water. I put it in my bag, among my root beers. Clyde walked over back to where he was standing when I walked in.

There was a large curtain blocking the path. "Well, I'm gonna go train," Nikki said, as she left. Spiri shrugged. "I don't really want to see you get your ass kicked, so I'm going to go with her."

On the big red curtain was the Fire type emblem. On the ground in front of it were the Fire, Water and Grass emblems. It was actually quite easy to figure out. I stepped on the water emblem ,and the curtain opened, revealing a Trainer and another curtain after him. "Let's do this," I told the Trainer, as I grabbed Ivy's Pokeball.

Veilstone City, in the Sinnoh Reigon

Dialga and Palkia were locked in yet another battle. The Temporal Pokemon let loose blasts mixed with the elements of time at Palkia, who retailated with several blasts of spatial energy. Needless to say, the humans far beneath them had gather to see the sight.

One Trainer had decided to do something about it. She was dressed in all black, with jet black hair. She was currently on top of a skyscraper not too far from the battle. In her hand was an empty Master Ball.

"Mewtwo, distract Dialga!" Mewtwo flew through the air, and into the battle. Dialga swatted at the Psychic type with his tail, seeing it as a nusience. Mewtwo fired several Aura Spheres at Dialga, causing the Temporal Pokemon to turn toward Mewtwo...and took a Master Ball to the face. Red energy engulfed him, and he went into the ball. Mewtwo prevented it from falling with his psychic powers, and levitated it over to his trainer.

She smiled as the ball came to rest in her hands. "You did well, Mewtwo." She clipped the ball onto her belt, with two other balls. "He has two. I have three."

"He...now he has three," Mewtwo corrected, as somewhere around the world, another Legendary fell.

"So, six down?"

"Seven, miss Myla."

"Then who has the seventh?"

In Srtiaton City Gym...

The Gym Trainers were extremely easy to beat. The other two curtains were practically child's play. I now stood before the Gym Leader.

"Welcome to the Striaton City Gym." The Leader bowed, and a person almost exactly like him, wearing the same waiter's uniform, but had red hair, walked out from behind him.

"I'm Chili! I light things up with Fire-type Pokemon!" The newcomer shouted. Then a blue haired dude stepped out from behind Greenhair. "I'm a Water-type specialist, and my name is Cress." he said.

"And my name is Cilian. I like Grass-type Pokemon.

"The one you face will be decided upon the first Pokemon you chose!" Chili stated. Oh shit, I didn't like where this was going.

"That is indeed the case," Cress said. "and the partner that you chose first was Grass type, it seems."

Cress and Cilian back away, and Chili walked to the front. "Ta-da!" Wow, that was gay. "The Fire-type scorcher Chili, that's me, will be your opponent!"

"What? That has to be against some rule or something!" I exclaimed. "You can't just pit me against the one with a Pokemon that has the type advantage."

"It was the current Champions idea," Cress stated. "To help new trainers learn about types."

New trainer? I hated being in disguise. But that was the price you had to pay for privacy. I was going to pown this noob...

The sun was setting as I stormed out. "Damn that stupid fire monkey!" I shouted as I slammed the Gym doors. Well, that was what I got for calling a Gym Leader a noob. Long story short, Bark took out his Lillipup, and both he and Ivy got owned by his Pansear. Seriously, there had to be law against something like that!

I didn't see Nikki or Spiri, so I headed to the Center to get a room for the night. Of course, knowing my luck, there were two beds in the room. The girls woud take them, so I set my stuff on the couch, and turned on the TV.

_"New Flash" _A news reporter appeared on the screen, and from the surroundings it looked like she was in Veilstone. Yep, there was the bigass mall.

_I'm reporting live from Veilstone City, where our camera crew caught the battle of Palkia and Dialga, but this fight ended differently..._

The camera view switched to a ground view, aiming up at the sky. You could clealy make out the two dragons in the sky. They fought for a few seconds, before light engulfed Dialga, and the footage ended.

_Was what was caught on camera footage of the legendary Dialga being captures? Or did he simply teleport?_

I watched in shock as the reporter interview several witnesses, getting their opinion.

_Seven have fallen, and more will follow, _Voi said in my head.

_Please explain what the hell is going on._

_All will be revealed in due time. But watch for these two Trainers who have been catching the legendaries. Prepare for a fight of legendary preportions. Hey, that was a good pun._

_Peace out, bitch._

_Bye, fucker, _Voi said, as he left me alone. The door opened, and Spiri walked in, followed by Nikki, who was holding something shiny. Was that...damn it.

"I got the Trio Badge!" Nikki exclaimed, as she pinned it to her tank top. I smiled. "Congrats."

Well, the first Gym Badge had been obtained. Too bad it wasn't mine.

Three hours later...

Spiri leaned up in the bed, glancing over at the sleeping Trainers. Well, sleeping Tranier, as Nikki was still awake.

"You awake, Spiri?" Nikki asked, glancing over.

"Yeah."

"I need to talk to someone about something important," Nikki continued. "I honestly don't know if I want to travel with another trainer right now. But I hate being alone."

Spiri sighed. She stood up, and opened the doors to the balcony. "Trevor needs you right now, nore than anything else."

"Really? Why?"

"He's pretty torn up right now." Nikki looked at Spiri, who motioned her out to the balcony. "Wait here." Spiri walked back inside, and took something out of my bag. She walked back out. "This is why. It's a long, long story, that starts a little over a year ago." She held up my badge case. "Trevor was a trainer in Sinnoh before he came here." She opened the case, revealing the eight shiny Sinnoh badges, as well as the Champion badge.

Nikki stared at them. "You mean he's the Sin-" Spiri nodded. "I could learn a lot from him," she admitted, trying to hide the excitment.

"Now, as I was saying," Spiri continued. "He had a girlfriend in Sinnoh, named Dawn." Spiri relayed the entire story of our journey, until the end, on Spear Pillar.

Nikki could feel tears forming in her eyes. She felt sorry for me. "Why are you telling me this?" She asked Spiri.

"Because I want you to know what you are getting yourself into."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: One Long Fucking Day

_**A/N: Next chapter we get to Trevor's first Gym battle. I had fun writing this chapter, and it has nothing to do with the main story.**_

_I was back on the ruins on Mount Coronet, watching from the side as Cyrus summoned Dialga and Palkia. Voi was next to me, and I realized that it had been a while since I had seen his actual body._

_"You remember this," Voi said. _

_"This is where Dawn died," I muttered. "How can I forget?"_

_Voi chuckled. "Your mistake is thinking that your girlfriend is dead."_

_"You mean she's not?" Voi shook his head. "But I was there! I saw everything! She was killed by Palkia!"_

_Voi rolled his eyes. "I was there too, dumbass. While she might not exsist as an actual being...have you heard of Gar-Duno?"_

_That had to be the most akward name ever. "What is it?"_

_"It is the process of a Legendary absorbing a human body. They take in all the memories, thoughts, and dreams. Plus they get a voice in their head, but you know how that feels. But it also amplifies their power."_

_"Get to the point."_

_"Watch." Voi pointed out at the scene in front of us. Dawn and I ran up to Cyrus, and I pointed at him and shouted. I don't remember it entirely, but the replay was silent. Cyrus guestured to Palkia, and the next thing I knew, Palkia shot out a purple sphere out the pearl on his left shoulder. It was aimed at me. _

_Suddenly, Dawn jumped in front of me, taking the sphere. I turned away. There was no way I could see this a second time. Voi put his hand on my shoulder, and turned me back to face it. "Watch closely."_

_Dawn's body disintegreated into purple particles of light, that flew in the air, and faded after a few seconds. "I assume that's what spatial power can do to a human," I said, trying to hold back tears. _

_"You assume incorrectly. Palkia absorbed the particles through Gar-Duno. I can't say the name is a good one, but if you wish to get Dawn back, then Palkia is the key."_

_"Is this Gar-Duno reversible?" I asked._

_"Uncertain. This is the third time that this has happened in the past two-thousand years," Voi told me. "The other offenders were Darkrai and Mewtwo." _

_"So, what should I do?"_

_"Only you can answer that yourself." _

I woke up, and checked the clock for the time. 6:12am. Great. I'm not a morning person. I headed out to train, trying to get my mind off of the dream. Was there really any truth to what Voi had said?

The city was quiet, but there were still few signs of life. A couple of buildings had some lights on, including a coffee shop next to the Pokemon Center. I walked in, and got an mocha to go. I fumbled with my free hand to find my map, and locate this Dreamyard. Just northeast of the Gym, like Cilian had pointed.

I took a gulp of the steaming coffee, and I admit, it was pretty good. By the time I reached the path to the forest, I had drank it all. Tossing the empty cup into a trash can, I walked through the forest, and emerged at what appeared to be a ruined building. Several Trainers had gathered for what seemed to be a battling competition.

"You joining the tournament?" asked a lanky teen who stood nearby. You really couldn't call this a legit tournament, as it was just a few Trainers trying to show off. But what the hell? You only live once. And it would help me forget about the dream at the time being.

"Sure. What are the rules?"

He just looked up at me. "Uh...the regular rules for battling. It's nothing special." He reached for a clipboard. "Name, please."

"Trevor Murphy." It was my current aliby.

"Age."

"Fourteen."

"Number of Gym Badges."

"Um...none." I really wished I could have shown off my Sinnoh badges, but I had to stay anonnyomous.

"Okay, you will be Trainer number six. Don't forget that number." He led me to the group of Trainers that had gathered in a circle around what I assumed was the field. There was a TV screen that showed the Trainer, and how mnay Pokemon they had."There will be three battles, and the winner of each gets to pick one of three Pokemon as a prize."

Then battles began. One and Two each only had one Lillipup, and One ended up winning. Three had a Patrat, a Pidove, and, shockingly, a Pichu. Four had only a Audino, but took the win. It was now time for me and Five to go up.

"On the left side of the field, Trainer Five; Sara Hakumma!" Five waved to the crowd, who cheered for her. "And on the right side, Trainer Six; Trevor Murphy!" No cheering for me. That was going to change. The screen show my picture next hers. She was about eighteen, blonde hair that was in a ponytail, and wearing a white tank top with jeans. Each of us had two Pokemon.

The announcer continued; "As you all know, Sara has the Trio Badge from the Gym, and is most likely the strongest Trainer here. She was born and raised in Straiton, and has stayed inside the city, training all her life. Give it up for Sara Hakumma!" The crowd, which was mostly composed of men, roared with applause. "Trevor, new guy, doesn't have any Unova Gym Badges!" Laughter erupted from the crowd. Wait, I was being insulted? Shit is about to go down.

"Allright, let the battle begin!" Sara pulled a Pokeball out of the purse over her shoulder, and sent out a blue monkey, that looked sorta like Chili's Pansear. I wanted to scan it with the Pokedex, but I had left it in the room. Of course. Remind Spiri to get that.

_Done, _Voi said, interrupting my thoughts. That was the one thing he was good for. Taking notes. And interrupting your thoughts.

"Um...Ivy, you're up," I said as I released the grass snake from its ball.

Sara scoffed. "Really? Going for the type advantage? What a noob." It was a Water-Type? What do you know...Luck.

I smiled. "Really, trying to mock your opponents? I would think that someone with a celebrity status would be more mature." She flicked me the bird. "Then again, maybe not."

"Once you're on the groud crying, we'll see who is immature." She pointed at Ivy. "Panpour, use lick!"

"Ivy counter with Vine Whip, and then use Leer!" The monkey ran at Ivy, tounge dangling from its mouth. Once it was close enough, Ivy lashed out his vines and smacked Panpour in the face. The monkey staggered backwards, and fell to the ground, struggling to get back up from the super effective move.

Ivy stared at Panpour, using Leer. "Now, Vine Whip again!" Ivy smacked Panpour again before the monkey could stand, knocking it out.

"Panpour is unable to battle. Snivy wins!" The announcer announced. The crowd started to boo me. _Wow, really? _I thought. _They really must like this chick._

Sara smiled as she returned the monkey. "You won only because you had the type advantage. I want to see how you'llwithout it." She sent out yet another monkey. But this one was famil...It was another one of those damn fire monkeys! A Pansear if I am correct.

"Pansear, use Incinerate!" The monkey shot flames out of its mouth at the grass snake, who managed to barely avoid it.

"Ivy, come back," I ordeder as I recalled him.

Sara raised an eyebrow. "Running away, are we?"

"Nope, call it a tactical withdraw," I said, smirking. I grabbed Bark's ball and sent him out. He looked around for a minute, before setting eyes on Pansear. The puppy's eyes filled with rage as he remembered his last fight with a Pansear.

"Bark use Leer!"

"Pansear use Incinerate!"

The monkey shot flames at Bark, while the dog gave him the stare of doom. The scorching flames hit the dog, causing him to whimper as he endured them. I felt sorry for him having to go through this.

"Now, use scratch Pansear!"

"Bark, use Bite when it gets close enough!" The monkey rasied its claws as it ran toward Bark. My Lillpup bared its, rather small and pathetic, fangs. Pansear jumped at Bark, and Bark lept at Pansear. They collided in mid-air, Bark digging his fangs into the damn fire monkey's neck, while Pansear clawed furiously at him. Bark landed on top of Pansear, biting him over and over again, until all movement from either of them had stopped.

"Lillipup, and Pansear are unable to battle. It's a tie!" The announcer looked up at the screen, and saw that both Pokeballs on Sara's side had been blacked out. "In that case, Trevor is the winner!"

"He fucking cheated!" Sara screamed, tears falling from her eyes. "I call hack! I demand that someone review that battle!" She turned to the announcer, and stomped her foot gently, making her...female assets...there, I said it...jiggle. Oh, so _that's _why she was so popular.

"Please, can you review the battle," she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. The announcer sighed, and turned to the cameraman that had filmed the battle. "We will review the film," he announced to the crowd, who burst into applause. This was pathetic. Sara turned to me and stuck her tongue out at me. I rolled my eyes, and glanced at the crowd. Nikki and Spiri had found me, and were standing in the back of the crowd, and Nikki looked ticked off by the unecessary behavior of the crowd. Spiri was, well, Spiri. Just standing there.

"We have review the footage, and we have reached the conclusion that Contestant Six used two ineligble Pokemon for the battle. They were too strong to be of equal strength of Contestant Five's. Therefore, he has been disqualified, and the winner is Sara!" The crowd went nuts.

"Loser! Cheater! Downright cocksucker!" were among the things I heard from them. Nikki swung a punch at the one who called me a cocksucker. Well, time to do end this.

I walked over to the microphone, and took a deep breath. "I quite frankly don't blame you for your attitude, seeing as how you fawn over this slut."

That silenced the crowd. Sara turned on me, and said, "I don't have to take this shit from someone with no Badges!" The crowd roared in agreement.

"All the while, I caught my Lillipup. I doubt that you caught your own Pokemon."

She laughed at me. "Oh please. I caught these two myself. Which is more than the one you caught." The crowd, which was starting to irritate me, cheered at the "burn."

"While that is true, you have never left the city?"

"Never in my life," she answered, with an eyeroll.

"Have you ever taken into consideration that Panpours and Pansears are not native to any place near Straiton?" The crowd went silent, waiting for her answer.

"I...uh...um...I found them lost in the street." Of course, the crowd was satisfied with the response. I wasn't.

_Her rich dad bought them for her, _Voi thought into my head.

"I think that you rich father, who just seems to spoil you rotten, bought them for you." She stared at me, blushing, and trying to think of a response. _Futhermore, the two hate her guts. _Voi said.

"And your Pokemon freaking hate you, but you force them against their will." Sara was incomplete tears now, face red with anger. I hated doing it to her, but when you mess with me, I mess back harder.

"And, about that Badge thing, don't feel too bad," I said, as I pulled out my Badge Case, careful enough to remove the Sinnoh Champion Badge from it. "I have eight." I held the case open, and showed the crowd, who still didn't seem to care about me.

"Those are the Sinnoh Badges, right?" Sara asked. I nodded. "Then perhaps you have heard of Giratina." She held up a Pokeball. "I have him." She sent out the Pokemon, and the large dragon that I have met several times before appeared, ready to fight. This would get interesting fast...


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Finally!

I stared up at the large dragon in front of me. The crowd had gone silent, and wondering what the hell just happened. I smiled grew across my face. "That's not Giratina."

Sara stared at me, with a slight look of shock. Had she been expecting me to be scared or something? "Yes it is."

"I'll prove it." Currently, the "Giratina" was in altered form, despite the fact that it was in close proximity to the Griserous Orb. "Ivy, use Vine Whip." Ivy looked up at me, with wide eyes. "Just do it."

The grass snake nervously ran up to the dragon, and smacked it with its vines. Giratina slowly shrunk down into a small purple blob of what appeared to be putty.

"It was only a Ditto," I said, "And now I take my leave." I returned Snivy to his Pokeball and walked back to Straiton City. Nikki and Spiri had to run to keep up with me.

"We saw most of what happened. And I just wanted to say that some people are like that," Nikki said, trying to comfort me. I honestly was glad that she didn't seem to have seen the part of where I showed my badges.

"Yeah, I know." My stomach roared, and I remembered that I hadn't eaten all day. The ramen noodles had been burnt. "The Gym is also a cafe, right?"

Nikki nodded. "Yeah, I ate there after I won my badge."

"Then that's where we going. After I go to the Pokemon Center," I ran off toward it, planning on how to win the badge later. I got my team healed, and we went to the cafe. We entered, and a waiter escorted us to a table. We got several strange looks, as most other people were here on dates, and they hadn't expected a person to walk in with two girls. I'm just that awesome.

"Everyone is staring at us," Nikki said nervously, looking over her shoulder.

"Should I leave you two here?" Spiri asked. "I can get food at the Pokemon Center." Before I had a chance to respond, she walked out the door. I shrugged.

"Hey! You!" I looked up and saw the other two winners of the tournament. One and Four. One had a Pokeball in his hands. "We know what it's like to put up with that bitch, and we know that you won. So we stole the prize Pokemon that you would've won." He handed the Pokeball to me. "It's a Panpour."

I took the ball and put it on my belt. "Thanks! It's what I needed! Not sure if that's legal, but what the heck." I jumped from the table and ran over to where the Gym Leaders were. "Chili, I demand a rematch!"

"Ah, so you have returned. So be it." He sent out his Lillipup.

"Go Bark!" The puppy appeared in front of me, ready to fight.

"Use Work Up!"

"Use Leer!" Bark gave the opposing dog an evil leer, while the other strained itself, raising its stats. "Now use Bite!" Bark ran at the other dog, and tackled it, biting its neck.

"Counter with your own Bite!" Chili exclaimed. His Lillipup bit Bark, and the two struggled like that for a couple of seconds, before Bark broke free of the other dog's grasp.

"Now use Leer again!" I ordered. Bark gave the stare of death, and lowered the defense of the opposing dog.

"Bite!" Chili commanded to his Lillipup.

"Do the same!" I told Bark. The two ran at each other, and jumped at the other. It seemed to be slow motion as they collided, digging their fangs into each other and fell to the ground. They both were knocked out.

"Both Pokemon are unable to battle!" Cress shouted out. "It's a tie!"

"Then it looks like Pansear is up again!" Chili stated, as he tossed the Pokeball into the field. The monkey appeared, flames spewing from its mouth.

"Go Ivy!" I decided to use Ivy first, just to weaken the Pansear down in case my new Panpour wasn't able to handle it. "Use Leer!" Ivy gave the Fire-Type an evil look, which he was already doing in the first place, just to no effect. The defense was lowered, giving me a slight advantage.

"Incinerate!" Pansear unleashed a chain of fire at poor Ivy, who was badly wounded from the attack.

"Hang in there! Use Leer again, and then you can rest!" Ivy glared once more at the monkey, before falling to the flames that were shot afterward. "Get in there, Aqua!" Original name, right? Aqua the Panpour looked around, until it saw the Pansear, which was looking slightly worried. "Use Water Gun!" The stream of water hit Pansear, which staggered back from the super-effective move.

"Pansear, try Incinerate again," Chili ordered, worry in his voice. Aqua shrugged the flames off, and fired another stream of water, hitting Pansear in the face. The fire monkey fell to the ground, knocked out.

"Pansear is unable to battle! The winner is Panpour! The match goes to challenger Trevor!" Cress shouted. People watching while they ate burst into applause. That was a much better crowd than the other.

"Whoa ho! You're on fire!" Chili said. reaching into his pocket. "Well, it's the Pokemon League rule. Take this Gym Badge!" He handed me the badge, which I then put into the Unova section of my badge case, careful not to let my Sinnoh badges be seen.

Chili and Cilian switched places. "Gym Badges are proof of a Trainer's abilites," Cilian said. "If you have one badge, stronger Pokemon will obey you." He pulled a TM disc out of his pocket. "We also want you to have this." I took the disc from his hands, and looked it over.

"TM83 contains Work Up, which raises the Attack and Special Attack! By the way, TMs can be used more than once," Cilian informed me. I thanked him and turned to the clapping crowd. After taking several bows, I walked back over to the table I left Nikki at.

"Congrats," she muttered, sipping from the drink she ordered.

"You don't seem happy about it," I said, sitting down in the empty chair adjacent to her.

"Well, I just wanted to spend some time getting to know you over lunch, and-"

"This was a date?" I interrupted.

"Not really, but some could see it that way."

That wasn't exactly the answer I was expecting, but I was hungry, so I let it go. We ordered our food, and chatted for a while. I found out that Nikki came from Nimbasa City, where she had met the Gym Leader. Kip was her only Pokemon at the time, and she planned to catch more when the chance came around. The sun was setting as we left the cafe, casting an omnious darkness over Straiton.

"Hey there!" A woman wearing a lab coat ran over to us. "I'm Fennel. Professer Juniper asked me to give you something. Please follow me!" She led the two of us back to her house, and into the living room. "You're going to meet all the Pokemon in the Unova region, right?"

"I guess," I answered.

"Oh, the stairs are right here!" Fennel shouted out suddenly, not acknowledging my response. "My room is upstairs here. Come on, go upstairs."

Other than the fact that I had only know this person for just a few minutes, and now they wanted me and Nikki in their bedroom, this was very weird. I looked around the room, noticing all the computers and stuff in there. Most of it had to be used for research and all that.

I ignored most of what Fennel said after that, listening to Voi. _I'm starting to get kinda bored._

_I don't care. _

_Well, that's no way to talk to me._

_You treat me like shit all the time. _

_Compared to me, you are shit._

Then, I began to ignore him as well. I felt Nikki's hand brush against mine, and she withdrew it quickly, blushing at the contact. I remained neutral on the outside, but on the inside, it was a war for who I loved. I loved Dawn, but she was gone, with very little chance to get her back. I wasn't going to let what happened to Dawn happen to Nikki, no matter the cost.

Dammit, I had feelings of her, though.


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine: Munna and Plasma_

"Okay, so that strange scientist asked us to go to the Dreamyard in the middle of the night, and collect some Dream Mist, whatever the hell that is. And we agreed to do it all for free," I pointed out, as I handed the nurse my Pokeballs.

"Well, she did give you that HM. So it's not all for nothing," Nikki said, holding Kip in her arms. She seemed to have forgotten all about the incident back in Fennel's lab.

"What's up?" Spiri asked, as she walked down the stairs that led to our room. She was dressed in a white tee shirt, apparently starting to adapt to human clothing.

"We have to go to the Dreamyard. You coming?" I asked as the nurse handed my Pokemon back. I immediantly sent them all out, picking up Bark, who licked my face. Ivy climbed up my head, and Aqua clung to my neck. I felt like a Pokemon bus or something.

Spiri shrugged. "Why not? I ain't got nothing better to do." I hoped that she wasn't going to start talking like that all the time.

"Then let's go!" Bark barked in agreement, and we left into the night. The gentle winds blew against us, making the night cold. Nikki was only wearing a tank top, and she appeared to be freezing. "Bark, I'm going to set you down for a minute," I put the dog down, and took off my jacket. "Here," I handed it to Nikki.

"No, I'm fine." She was holding Kip close to her, obiviously trying to siphon body heat.

"Just take it. I'll be fine without it."

"Okay, but only if you insist," Nikki said, taking the jacket, and putting it on. I stood in my black tee shirt, winds blowing against my arms. It was cold. "Are you going to be okay?" Nikki asked.

"I'm fine. It's more Spartan this way," I responded, picking Bark back up.

"Spartan? Like the ancient Spartans?"

"Have you ever played Halo?"

"No."

"Well then, you wouldn't get that reference. But let's focus on the topic at hand."

The Dreamyard loomed ahead, looking more foreboding than it did in the daytime. The ruins of the old factory moaned as wind blew across the open windows. "Why did we have to do this at night?"

"We could have waited," I said. There was a small tree blocking the path into the factory. "Aqua, use Cut on that tree!" The water monkey scampered over to it, and sliced it down with one swift strike from its tail. "And now we have a way in."

"Hi Trevor and company!" Bianca shouted as she walked up behind us. I could see Spiri roll her eyes, obiviously not the biggest Bianca fan in the world. "Are you guys looking for the mysterious Pokemon too?"

"Uh...maybe," I shrugged. We were here to get the Dream Mist, and that was all. I really wanted to get back to our room so I could sleep on the couch. I think I ruined it for myself there. Bianca walked through the opening Aqua had made, and began looking around.

Nikki took point as she followed after Bianca. "If we split up, we can find it faster," she said, walking off into the ruins. A Pokemon's cry echoed in the empty building.

"Did you hear that?" Bianca asked. "Did you hear a sound coming from the other side of the wall?"

"Yeah, we heard it," Spiri said sarcastically. "We were five feet away from you. How could we have missed it?"

Bianca shot her a look. "Well, come on. Let's go see!" Then a scream tore through the silence of the night.

"That was Nikki!" I realized, as Spiri and I ran through the reamains of the factory, until we reached a clearing. There was a pink Pokemon in the middle of the clearing, with Nikki on the ground sniffing as if she had been crying. Then I saw why.

Two Team Plasma grunts walked out, one holding Kip in his tight grasp. "Give Kip the fuck back!" I shouted, moving over to Nikki.

"Oh look. It's some guy trying to impress a girl by taking on the might of Team Plasma," one of the grunts muttered. "As if you could do anything." He walked over to the pink Pokemon, and kicked it. "Give us some of you Dream Mist, Munna!"

"Don't hurt it! You sick bastards!" Nikki shouted as she ran over to protect Munna. The grunt slapped her pretty hard in the face.

"Ooh, that's gotta hurt," I muttered as she fell to the ground. Nikki was out cold, and Kip was struggling to get free.

"Wow, show some concern, man," Spiri said.

"I did. I said that hurt."

"Hey! Pink hair!" One grunt shouted. "You remind me of a Physic -Type. I bet you would be super effective against my Seviper!" The other high fived him. I face palmed.

"Let's test that theory," Spiri said. She fired two spheres of purple energy at the grunts, knocking them off their feet. Kip squirmed free and ran over to Nikki, whimpering when she saw that her Trainer was knocked out.

Spiri nudged me, and pointed at Nikki. "I should go over there right?" She nodded. I walked over to where Nikki was laying, and checked her over. She would be okay, but with a nasty bruise on her cheek.

Suddenly, a white light flashed, and the Plasma dude from Accumula, Ghetsis, was standing to the left of us.

"Why are you two goofing off?" he asked the grunts. Then a second Ghetsis appeared to the right. "We, Team Plasma, shall separate Pokemon from foolish people!" Then they both dissappeared and one appeared in front of the grunts. "If you cannot fulfill your duties...

"T-this isn't...Ghetsis when he is gathering followers...Or Ghetsis when he is trying to control people by tricking them with speeches!" Grunt 1 blurted out. Interesting info though.

"Yeah..." the Grunt 2 said. "This is Ghetsis when a plan has failed, and he is about to issue punishment..."

"At any rate, let's get back fast so we can apologize! I don't want to be put on latrine duty again!" Grunt 1 shouted as he ran away.

"Me neither!" Grunt 2 yelled as he followed.

Then what appeared to be a larger Munna with a stream of pink mist coming from its head floated over to Munna.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked, standing up.

"Well, that bro called Ghetsis appeared all over the place, and it wasn't real," Spiri answered. Everytime I talked to her, it seemed that the way she talked changed, assuming the term "Bro" wasn't a common name used by Legendaries for humans.

"...Could it have been a dream?" Bianca asked, walking into the clearing. She had stayed out of the main fight, and had no doubt seen everything. But, she never asked about the purple energy.

Spiri answered with a 'no shit' look, and Bianca turned her focus to the other Pokemon. Nikki was going to be out for a while, as it was a pretty hard slap. I picked her up, and carried her.

"And that Pokemon..." Bianca said.

"Oh my, what happened here?" Fennel walked up to us. "I noticed that it was taking longer than usual to collect some Dream Mist, so I came over to seen if everything was allright." Her gaze went to Nikki. "Perhaps you might want to get her to the Pokemon center. They have a first aid clinic there."

"Thanks," I said, walking away, leaving Fennel and Bianca behind. Spiri walked along side of me, carrying Kip. Bark was walking behind me, as my hands were full. Aqua was still around my neck, and Ivy still on my head.

_Hey, you okay? _Mespirit asked Kip, using mental powers.

_Yeah, I'll be okay, as long as Nikki is...Wait, you are a pyscopath?_

_I think the term you're looking for is pyschic._

_Right, that. Dudette, that badass._

_Trust me, it's not all its worked up to be..._

Spiri looked up at me, and smiled. _But I know that those two are crazy about each other, no matter how much they lie to themselves._

I carried Nikki back to the Pokemon Center, where the nurse ran over with a first aid kit. I lied and said that she fell and hit a rock. Right about then was when Nikki came around.

"She'll be fine," the nurse said, as she examined the brusie on Nikki's cheek. "It'll just fade after a few weeks, so give it time."

"No problem," Nikki said, running her own hand over the injury. She seemed slightly exhausted, and I felt the same. It was almost midnight now, and I really wanted to sleep. We went back to the room, and I plopped down on the couch, easily falling asleep within minutes. Nikki stayed awake, just thinking about what had transpired. I was in a deep sleep, well, until the nightmare that I have had for the five-hundredth time occured again, only this time there was a twist to it...

_Meanwhile, in the Sinnoh Region, 12:23am_

Cyrus stood before all his former subjects. It had been three months since he was last seen in the real world, but to him, it was only three hours.

He was relieved to be back, but after being stranded for so long, he had time to think. He understood the flaws of what he had done, and how the boy had stood up and saved the world from his selfish and evil act.

It was time to start the reign of the New Team Galactic. A team focused on stopping any other Team's plans that would have a massive, and negative effect on the world. But, he was also doing it for his daughter. The one the he had learned about two hours, or two months ago.

He was married once, but left his wife soon after when she didn't agree to his veiw of things. But that was over fourteen years ago...


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter Ten: The Open Road_

_Once more, I returned to Spear Pillar, my mind replaying the events that unfolded that day...The awakening of the Palkia and Dialga, the death of Dawn, the return of Giratina..._

_I didn't want to look, cause I knew how it ended..._

_But something was different. Voi was standing beside me, looking as he always did. "You lost part of yourself that day, and yet you blame it on yourself. It wasn't you fault."_

_"I know, but I can't help it! I loved her!" My voice was weakening. "I was supposed to protect her! No matter what!"_

_"And who gave you the orders to protect her?"_

_"I did...but-"_

_"No buts. You humans always set goals and mandates that you fail. It is human nature," Voi said, with absolutely no compassion what so ever. He was cold hearted by nature, and when I first met him, he was quite the renegade._

_"You make us humans seem like failures! You forgot about what your behaviour used to be like!" I retorted._

_Voi smiled and closed his eyes. "Yes, but times have changed. But keep in mind the day of judgement that is coming, the one that will wipe out the planet of all life, leaving it all barren. The battle of no victory, as no one can win with Legendaries that have absorbed a human soul..."_

_"But what if I fail? I have been known to do that from time to time."_

_Voi just stared at me. "From time to time? It's usually every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday." He cleared his throat, and continued. "But if you fail, I now of only one way to stop them. And if you are forced to use this method, there might possibly be no return."_

I opened my eyes, taking in the modest furniture of our room, and the clock on the wall read 3:43. I sighed. I had lost way too much sleep on these dreams. Spiri was on the balcony, meditating in a sphere of purple light.

Settling for appealing to one of my addictions, I headed down to the main lobby of the Center, where the drink machine was. After putting the money in, my root beer clanked down. It made the nice carbination popping sound when I opened it. I leaned against the wall as I took the first sip, contemplating everything that Voi had said.

The day of judgement, when none shall survive...Seems like it was right out of a horror movie, only I had to live this story. I swirled the drink around in the can, still lost in thoughts.

_Hey, listen. About what I said, this is some serious shit. You have to prepare yourself for the battle that would save the world. You must stand up to these Legendaries._

_I assume that you want to participate in the battle._

_Correct._

_I don't know...Just why me?_

_You saved the world before, and now you must do it again, you must stop the Armageddon at all costs._

_No pressure. And you call it the Armegeddon? I think that might be a slightly over used term._

_...Fuck off._

_Fucking off..._That was usually how Voi and I talked. He would say something of major importance, and I would respond with stupid comments or questions.

_Oh wait, one last thing. Can you let me stretch my wings? Being cramped up in a Pokeball is not what I had in mind when I agreed to go with you._

_Fine. _I returned to my room, and took Voi's Pokeball out of my bag. The morning air was cool, with a slight dampness to it. The sky was still dark, with the stars twinkling overhead.

_Just don't get you self noticed..._I pressed the release button on his ball, and Voi appeared in front of me...

I returned to our room two hours later, and placed Voi's Pokeball back in my bag. Nikki was still asleep, with my jacket still on her. Spiri was casually watching TV, with it muted.

"You might want to pack your things, and mabye Nikki's," I told her, throwing my bag over my shoulder. "We're leaving for Nacrene City as soon as Nikki wakes up." Spiri nodded, and returned her gaze to the TV.

"Why is it muted?" I asked, slightly tapping Kip with my foot to wake him up.

"I'm a figgin' pyschic. I know what they are saying."

"It's pre-recorded. They aren't thinking...you can't read a person's mind from a TV," I said, staring over toward my sleeping Pokemon.

"You forget, human, that I am a Legendary."

Rolling my eyes, I moved over to wake up Bark, who was already partly awake. Ivy was passed out on the arm chair, with Aqua next to him, blowing bubbles in his sleep. It was kinda cute, but still, I had to wake them up. Ivy was on my head within the first few seconds after I woke him, and Aqua wrapped his arms around my neck. I picked Bark up, while Kip jumped up on the bed to wake his Trainer by licking her face.

"What time is it?" Nikki asked groggily, as she woke from her sleep. I glanced at the clock and told her it was 5:23. She nodded, and stood up, yawning and stretching. "We leaving this early in the morning?"

"Yep. You know, early Starly gets the Wurmple."

"That has got to be the stupidest saying ever," Nikki replied, pushing herself off the bed. She still had my jacket on, and I let her hold on to it since it might be slightly chilly this morning. And also because I had several Pokemon on me, and I didn't feel like putting them down.

As we left the Center, I handed the key to the room back to the nurse on duty, and we headed out onto the open road. The sun was just rising over the peak of a mountain in the distance, casting a warm orange glow in the sky. We headed east, passing by what appeared to be the Pokemon Daycare in this region. We barely got farther than that when I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey Trevor! Wait up!" Cheren shouted as he ran up behind me. "We both have the Trio Badge, so let's see who is stronger!"

"Fine then!" I watched as Cheren sent out his Tepig. My first Pokemon out into battle was a no-brainer. "Go Aqua!" The water monkey jumped off my back and in front of me. "Use Water Gun!"

Aqua shot a stream of water at the pig, managing to hit it. Tepig endured the attack, still in the fight.

"Tepig, use Tail Whip!" The firery hog whipped its tail at Aqua, lowering his attack. Too bad Water Gun was a special attack.

"Use Water Gun again!" Aqua blasted Tepig with H2O, dropping the pig to the ground. Tepig struggled for a minute, before standing back up.

"Wow, that Tepig is endurant," Nikki said, surprised that it had managed to get up again.

"You don't say," I replied. "Use Water Gun one last time!"

"Tepig, dodge it and use Tackle!" Tepig jumped to the left as the water sailed harmlessly passed him, and charged at Aqua. The pog rammed into my monkey, and they both went sprawling on the ground.

"Now, while its down, use Water Gun!" This time, Tepig had no chance to escape. The water hit Tepig full in the face, knocking him out.

"Hm...perhaps I need to rework that strategy," Cheren said, withdrawing his fainted Pokemon. "Go Purrloin!" The cat like Pokemon appeared in front of me, looking expectantly at Aqua. "Use Growl!" Purrloin growled at Aqua, lowering my monkey's defense.

"Aqua, use Leer!" The Water Monkey gave the stare to the Purrloin, which was impressive as I have never seen Aqua open his eyes.

"Purrloin use Scratch!" The cat lunged out at the monkey, slashing Aqua with its claws. My monkey fell to the ground, but was able to stand up again before Purrloin could finish him off.

"Aqua, use Scratch as well!" Aqua charged the Purrloin, lashing out with his claws and striking the cat.

"Counter with Scratch again!" With Aqua at such a close range, Purrloin was able to scratch him again. Aqua did not get back up this time.

"That's okay, Aqua," I said, returning him to his Pokeball. "You did well." It was Bark's turn into the battle.

"Bark use Tackle!" Bark ran headlong into the cat, smashing into it with all his might. Purrloin scratched at him furiously, but the damage was done, and Purrloin stopped struggling after a few seconds.

Cheren huffed as he returned Purrloin to his Pokeball. "Why do you keep beating me? We have the same number of Gym Badges, so we should be equals in strength."

"Outta the way!" Two Team Plasma grunts ran by, one holding a Pokeball in his hands.

"What was that about?" Nikki asked, with Kip staring off after the grunts.

"I don't know," I said. Cheren was about to say something when he saw Bianca running up to them.

"Bianca? Why are you running?" Cheren asked.

"Where were those people headed?" Bianca ignored Cheren's question, and a little girl was running along side her, almost out of breath.

Spiri jerked her thumb in the direction they had went. "That way." She didn't ask why she was running after them, and something told me that was because she already knew.

"So, why are you running?" Cheren asked again.

"Those people run really fast," Bianca said, ignoring Cheren's question again.

"Seriously, why are you running?"

"Those theives took this little girl's Pokemon," Bianca replied. "I was helping her try to get it back."

"Cheren and I will go after them," I said. "Spiri, you and Nikki stay here with Bianca and the girl."

Nikki scoffed. "Yeah right, I'm going with you."

I shrugged. "Well, then fine. Let's go." The three of us ran after the Plasma grunts, but they were no where in sight. The sun was high in the sky by now, so it was impressive that they had gotten away in plain sight. There was a Pokemon Breeder training near by, so she migt have seen something.

"Excuse me, miss," Nikki said, walking over to her. "Have you seen two people dressed in knight like armor?"

"Um...they ran into that cave over there," the breeder said, pointing at the cave in the side of the rock face.

"Thanks!" I shouted, running in after them, with Cheren not to far behind. The cave was, no surprise, dark, damp, and completely boring.

"Oh look," one of the grunts said. "It's a rescue team. I'd like to see you try to take on Team Plasma!"

Ok, for the record, this guy was probably the lowest rank of Team Plasma. If not, he was certainly about to be.

"Fred, you're an idiot," the other grunt told him. "These are the same Trainers that fought Jack and Shirley at the Dreamyard."

"So," Fred replied. "You're the idiot Will, if you think that we're gonna lose to some snot-nosed kids." He tossed out his Pokeball, releasing the Pokemon inside. It was a Patrat.

"Go Bark!" My Lillipup jumped from my arms and into the battlefield. Cheren was wrapped up in his own battle. "Use Leer!" Bark gavev the Patrat the glare, lowering the defense. One of my favorite strategies for starting out, if you hadn't noticed.

"Patrat use Bite!" The mouse/rat thing ran over and bit Bark, who winced in pain. It was a critical hit.

"Hang in there, Bark. Use Bite!" This time, it was the Patrat that got chomped on. With the Leer in effect, it was a crippling blow.

"Patrat use Leer!" I almost facepalmed. That just handed me the win.

"Bark, use Bite again!" Bark jumped on the Patrat, and bit down on its neck. A bit brutal, if you ask me, but hey, I won. Cheren won his battle against the grunt named Will.

"But...but...but," Fred stammered. "How could we lose when we have right on our side?"

Cheren snatched the Pokeball out of the grunt's hands. "Here, Trevor, you can go return this to the little girl."

"You don't need to return it!" A voice echoed in the cave. Two more grunts walked up to assist the losers of the last battle. "How troublesome. Not only do you fail to understand, but you actually got in our way, to boot."

"Oh big deal," I butted in. "I get in tons of people's ways all the time. That's jst how I roll." Nikki put her hand to her face. "That didn't come out as I thought it would."

The other grunt continued. "There are three of you, and two of us-"

"I can change that," I said. I handed the stolen Pokemon to Cheren. "Here, take this back to the little girl. Nikki and I will wipe the...cave floor with their asses." Cheren nodded and ran out of the cave and back to Spiri and Bianca.

"Double battle, then?" Nikki asked, setting Kip on the ground. Kip walked in front of Nikki, ready to strike the first thing set against him.

"Ivy, looks like you're up, since Aqua is out, and Bark is tired." Ivy responded with a hearty cheer, jumping off my head and landing next to Kip.

Lo and friggen' behold, the two grunts each had a Patrat. Really, no orginality here.

"Ivy, use Leer!" Bet you saw that one coming. However, in a double battle, Leer would lower both opponets defense. Pretty handy.

"Patrat, use Leer!" One of the grunts had gotten smart, but Nikki outsmarted them.

"Kip, use Copycat!" Kip copied the Patrat's Leer, which meant that the Patrats were doubley down on defense.

"Patrat use Bite!" The rat charged at Kip, biting him in the neck. Crying out in pain, Kip managed to shake it off.

"Ivy use Vine Whip!" Ivy lashed out with his vines, smacking one of the Patrats right in the face for a instant knockout. Ivy threw one of his tiny arms up in triumph, enjoying the moment.

"Patrat, use Bite!" The remaining Patrat lunged at Kip, biting into his neck. "Break that puny Skitty's neck," the grunt added gravely.

"What?!" Nikki cried out. "You can't do that!"

"Ivy, pull it off with you vines!" The vines wrapped around the Patrat's neck, lifting it up off of Kip. "Vine Whip!" The Patrat didn't have a chance.

Nikki threw her arms around me. "You saved Kip's life! Thank you!" Kip rubbed against my leg, obviously happy. "What would I have done without you?"

"Um...pull it off yourself?"

Nikki looked up at me, still keeping me in the embrace. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Come on, we can reach Nacrene by midday if we hurry." The grunts had already left, leaving me and Nikki in that embrace. It felt nice.I never wanted to lether go. The friendly hug had turned into more. But still, we were burning daylight. Our second Badged awaited!


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter Eleven: Nacrene_

We finally had to break apart, and Nikki walked out first, blushing. I took a quick glance around Wellspring cave, as indicated on the sign, for anything that might be useful. But, aside from a shitload of rocks, there was nothing.

A gaint puffball with bat wings flew around, so I scanned it with my Pokedex. A Woobat. Who names these things? I left it alone, and ran out to catch up to Nikki, who had her camera out and was about to take a picutre of a bird Pokemon, so I took my Pokedex out once more and scanned the Pidove.

The camera flashed, and the Pidove flew back into the woods nearby. "Let's not keep Bianca and that little girl waiting," I said. "And besides, we have to get to Nacrene soon."

"I know we have to get there, but you need to slow down," Nikki replied. "You know, look at the beauty of nature." She looked around at the trees, and overgrown tall grass and smiled. "Yeah, let's get outta here. I didn't eat breakfast."

I reached into by bag and pulled out a pack of peanut butter crackers. "Here, one breakfast for one all for free."

"Great, resturant quality food," Nikki muttered as she opened the pack. "Ramen noodles and crackers. You really live life on a budget."

I rolled my eyes. "You wouldn't believe it."

She stared at me, halfway through the first cracker. "Hey, you save money."

"Yeah," I said. In reality, I had over fifty-three million in the bank, all of my Sinnoh winnings. I really had enough money to last years.

We reached Bianca and the girl, who were standing around waiting for us. She smiled and ran over to us. "Thank you!" The girl hugged me around my waist, and then did the same to Nikki. "Here, I want you to have these!" She reached into her pocket, and withdrew four Heal Balls. We each got two.

"Aw, that's sweet of you," Bianca said, patting the girl on the back. "You know, those Heal Balls will fully heal a Pokemon that you catch with it. It makes a great use when you're stuck and all your Pokemon are weak." She took the girl by the shoulder. "I'll take her home now, bye!" They walked off, and I saw Spiri leaning against a tree, hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. Her smile was from ear to ear.

"What?" I asked her, as she joined the group.

"If you only knew," Spiri replied, walking ahead of me and Nikki. _You know that Nikki likes you, _she sent tellipathically.

_I know, but after the last time, I don't know what to do._

_You'll have to decide for yourself._

Nikki and I were walking side by side, across a bridge on Route 3. The scenery was nice, tons of flowers growing in the tall summer grass. Randon Pokemon scuttled about, all heading in several directions. Trainers were trying to best each other, and I noticed that most of them were amatures. None had a decent strategy.

Our nature walk ended as we walked into Nacrene City, with Spiri still leading the way. Cheren was waiting for us. "Come with me a sec," Cheren said, and started walking off. I shrugged and followed, with Nikki and Spiri following behind me.

Cheren pointed ahead of us. "If you go straight from here, there's a Pokemon Center," he informed us. I sighed mentally, searching around for the Gym.

"And...use these if you want." Cheren handed me three Chesto berries, something I hadn't seen since Sinnoh. "Give one to one of you Pokemon, and then if it ever goes to sleep, that berry will wake it up." Cheren turned and walked away. "Oh, and by the way, the Gym Leader uses Normal types!" he called over his shoulder.

"Okay, so a Fighting type would be recommended," Nikki said, glancing down at Kip. "Looks like you're gonna get a new friend!" Kip perked up in Nikki's arms, excited that he wasn't going to be her only Pokemon anymore. "We should train first, though."

"Um, actually, the first thing to do is find the Gym," I corrected, still looking around. Finally, I spotted what appeared to be a museum, with a statue of a Pokeball next to the door, just as it had been in Straiton. "That has to be it." I ran up to the door, leaving Nikki and Spiri behind. Right as I was about to enter, N walked out.

"Oh, you again," I groaned. I hated this guy.

"I...want to see things that no one can see," N said, speaking fastly as usual. "The ideals of Pokemon inside of Pokeballs. The truths of how Trainers should be. And a future where Pokemon have becom perfect..."

"Then why don't you leave everyone alone and live far away, where you won't bother anyone?" I asked. I really hated this guy.

Ignoring my question, he continued. "Do you feel the same?"

"Um...well, it could be helpful," I admitted, trying to get him to leave me alone. I really really hated this guy.

"That so?" he asked, sounding blurred together from talking so fast. "I think my friends and I should test you to see if you can see this future, too." He pulled out a Pokeball, and tossed it to the ground, sending out a Pidove. Now I really fucking hated this guy.

"Go Bark!" My Lillipup appeared on the ground, looking ragged and tired from the earlier battles. Shit, I forgot to heal my team. This was going to suck.

"Pidove use Quick Attack!" The little bird flew up into the air, and then down into Bark at a high speed. Bark was out.

"Shit, Aqua's still out from the battle with Cheren, so it looks like Ivy's up." I sent out my Snivy, watching as he wavered in fear of the super effective bird. "It's all right, Ivy. You can take him." I encouraged him. "Use Wrap!"

Ivy sent vines out around the bird, entangling it, which prevented it from taking off. "Pidove use Growl!" The bird chirped rather pathetically at Ivy, but it still lowered his Attack. This really sucked.

"Um...use Vine Whip?" I half asked, half ordered. Ivy lashed out his vines, striking the Pidove, but doing very little damage.

"Pidove use Gust!" Well, that ended all hope I had of winning. Curse my memory. Ivy was thrown against the museum wall, knocking him out.

"Okay, you won. Don't act all bitchy about it," I said, returning Ivy to his Pokeball. Nikki and Spiri were still not in sight, which could be a good thing. Now they can't say that I lost.

"Even though we won, my friends aren't strong enough to save all Pokemon. Maybe I can't solve the equation that will changed the world. So I neen power... Power enough to make anyone agree with me." He walked off, leaving me standing there watching him go.

"Good luck with that," I called after him, being sarcastic.

He froze in his tracks, and turned to face me. "Now I know what power I need. Reshiram! The Legendary Pokemon that, along with the hero created the Unova region. It's my turn to become that hero!" He continued to walk away, acting casual as though he hadn't said something about a Legendary Pokemon.

"He might be one of those people who are capturing the Legends," I thought to myself. I would have to look into that later. Right now, I had a museum to explore!

The interior was what I would have expected of any museum. Exhibits all over; Skeletons of dead Pokemon, fossils, and what appeared to be a round black stone in the very back of the room. There was a man standing in front of what appeared to be the main exhibit, a Dragonite skeleton. Maybe he knew about the Gym.

"Wow, whenever I look at this skeleton, I'm...fascinated," he said, as I walked up next to him. He turned to look at me. "Welcome! I'm Hawes, the assistant director. Since you were kind enough to visit, I'll give you a tour of the museum."

"That's...great," I replied. I should've waited for Nikki and Spiri, but they could be anywhere right now.

Hawes guestured to the skeleton in front of him. "This skeleton is of a Dragon-Type Pokemon."

I had to resist the face-palm. "You don't say," I said, noting the wings and general Dragon shape of the remains.

"There's a theory that it had an accident while it was flying around the world, and so it became a fossil," Hawes explained. That had to be the most uninformative story about history that I had ever heard.

He then led me past a fossil of the thingy that evolves from Anorith, and to a meteorite. "This rock is amazing! It's a meteorite!" Hawes exclaimed. I was glad this tour was free.

"It contains some kind of energy from space," he continued.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing at a round black stone sitting on a pedistal next to the stairs.

"Oh, this? It's an ordinary stone. It was found near the desert, but other than the fact that it's old, it doesn't seem to have any value..." He shrugged. "We only display it because it's rather pretty to look at."

With that, he led me up the stairs, and to a doorway. "The Pokemon Gym is just beyond here," he informed me. "At the end of the Gym, a very strong and kind Gym Leader is waiting." Hawes smiled. "By the way, Lenora happens to be my wife!"

"That's cool," I said, turning for the door. My Pokemon had to be much stronger before I was going to take on Lenora. A few days of training should do the trick.

"There you are!" Nikki shouted as she and Spiri crossed the street. "We've been looking for you all over!" She held up a Heal Ball, one of the ones that the little girl had given us. "Meet Plank!" Nikki pressed the button on the ball, releasing a little Pokemon that was carrying a plank of wood over its shoulder.

A Pokedex scan revealed it to be a Timburr. "Nice catch," I admitted. "And it's a Fighting Type too. The Gym might be a push over for you."

"I hope so," Nikki said. "I have big dreams of becoming the League Champion."

"So do I," I lied. I already was one. "Right now, I would recommend some training. I'm not sure how strong Lenora's Pokemon are, and I don't want a repeat of the Straiton City Gym loss."

Nikki smiled. "You know, I think I'm going to give it a try right now. Just as a recon mission to assess her capibilites."

I shrugged. "You do that, and I'll get a room and do some training."

We left for our destinations, with Spiri following me. "How do you feel about her?"

"I don't know. We went over this already," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, you can't hide it from me, the Emotion Pokemon," she said. "And I know you like her, and you just don't want a repeat of Sinnoh."

"Listen, I don't want to talk about it right now," I could feel my face heating up as we walked into the Center. I handed the nurse my Pokemon, and sat down on a couch. Spiri followed suit quietly, as I pulled out my smartphone and continued reading the fanfic I started earlier. I was on chapter thirty-three.

_The wounded Marine thought for a moment. She knew where a small UNSC outpost was; she had picked up the IFF tags moments ago. But she was adamant about telling the Elite, as he could be a spy or something. _

_Before she could say anything, Getu stopped and looked around. He could tell something was wrong. "Wait here," he said, lowering the woman to the ground gently, hiding her behind some rocks and bushes. He pulled his pistol out, and walked off._

"Wat'cha reading," Spiri asked, breaking the silence. She was glancing at her fingernails, and was obviously unsatisfied with them, as she used her pyschic powers to change them.

"It's a Halo fanfic," I explained, leaning against the back of the couch. Spiri gave me a quizzical look. It would be kinda hard to explain everything to her, and I was saved as the nurse called me over to reclaim my Pokeballs.

I ordered a room, and Spiri followed me as I went to it. "Listen," I started. "Nikki's a nice girl, but there's no easy way to tell her that-"

"She just wants to help you," Spiri cut in. "I told her everything. She knows that you're the Champion of Sinnoh, and about you and Dawn."

I stared at her. "Why?"

"Because, if you can't get over the past, then you can never expect the future to be different."

* * *

_Citadark Isle, Orre Region_

The old man in the burgandy robe glanced up at the teen in front of him. "I suppose it can be done, but our research at our old lab is still under way, and the Pokemon we have selected to be XD001 has not been given to us for use yet, so there has been no field tests run. It might not work."

Nick Quadur was not in the mood for this. "Just do it. I need Darkrai to be at full strength."

Cipher's Grand Master Greevil nodded. "In that case, Darkrai would become our field test."

"So be it."


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter Twelve: A Screwed Up Gift for a Screwed Up Person_

Sprir walked out onto the balcony to meditate for a while. She contacted the Alpha Pokemon, Arceus. He had a new objective for her.

Arceus appeared to Mespirit as the white flame with green eyes. "Listen, I need you for something special. Aside from spying on Trevor, you are being put into the team that will be investigating the capture of Giratina. Finding Giratina is of utmost importance."

"Um...okay. Thanks...I guess," Mespirit replied.

"What we know so far, is that Giratina willingly went with a Trainer about three months ago. And that's all we got," Arceus seemed ticked off. The white flame paced back and forth, thinking. "We believe that the capture of Giratina was what started this whole thing with the Gar-Duno and the Legendaries...why are you laughing?"

"Gar-Duno...it's a stupid name," Mespirit said, stifling a giggle.

"You are so immature. I wish you luck, and, well...you don't understand how important this is. If we find the captor of Giratina, we might be able to avoid the Armegeddon Upon the Earth." Arceus stared down Mespirit. "Go ahead, laugh."

"Seriously, why can't anyone of you guys come up with better, unordinary names?"

"Would you rather it be called the Day that the Earth gets Screwed Over?"

Mespirit tapped her chin. "That has a good ring to it..."

Arceus rolled his green eyes. "You are pathetic. Why did I ever create something like you?" He looked her in the eyes. "You know we need that human in order to stop the Arma-whatever you want to call it. The humans that have the legendaries will stop at nothing to amp them up in order to beat the other."

"Why are they even fighting in the first place?"

"I don't know. But the power that their captured Legendaries possess could easily destroy the world." Arceus sighed. "Trevor must learn the true thoughts of his Pokemon. How they think, whom they trust, and whom they don't." Arceus smiled. "Plus, I like fucking his life up as much as possible. So give him the ability. "

"Which one? I know at least a million."

"Give him the number five combo, with a large fries," Arceus smirked. "Also, I heard you're trying to get Trevor and that other human, the female, together."

"Um...kinda?" Mespirit was at a loss for words. Had Arceus been spying on her?

"Then you have less than a month," the Alpha floated into the air. "Then it all comes to an end."

Mespirit looked at him. "What does that mean?"

The white flame began to fade. "I talked with Celebi, and the outcomes of the battle don't seem to end well. Of the seventeen different outcomes, sixteen are failures, and the last doesn't seem to go over well either." Arceus vanished, leaving Mspirit alone on the balcony.

* * *

I flipped through the TV channels as Spiri walked back into the room. "So, how did it go?" I asked. Bark and Ivy were asleep on the bed, resting up for their training. Aqua was sleeping in the shower.

"It went well, and I need to talk to you in private," Spiri went back onto the balcony, and I shrugged and tossed the remote on to the bed. I went out next to her.

"This is a gift from Arceus to you," she said, putting her hand on my head.

"What the hell are you-" I was lost in mid-sentence when a searing hot white pain came into my head. Pain that felt like someone was dumping vast amounts of information into my brain, and it couldn't comprehend it all that fast. I wanted to scream, but that would hurt. I squeezed my eyes shut, taking the pain as it came. "What the hell are you doing?" I finally managed to yell.

She didn't respond, and then she took her hand off of my head. "You'll find out soon enough," said, leaving me alone on the balconey. I collasped, letting the pain wash over me like the ocean. Everything got whiter as I passed out from the pain...

"Is he alive?" The voice was not one I had heard before. It sounded sorta like a teenager, not that far from my own voice. I couldn't see who it was; my vision was still vividly white. Spiri better not have blinded me.

"Yeah," said yet another new voice. This one sounded more like a surfer. "See, bro? He's moving."

"Say something," The first voice said into my ear. "What are the names of you Pokemon?"

I groaned, as the world began to return to my eyes. "Um...Ivy, Bark and Aqua," I replied to the voice, still searching for it. I lifted my head up, and saw that the room was empty, save for my Pokemon staring at me, eyes wide.

"Where did those people go?" I asked them. "They were here a minute ago."

"To What the Hell Town," Bark said, bewildered. Call me nuts, but he really did talk! His mouth moved, and words came out! Words I could understand! "I asked you a question, and you understood it and answered it, even though you shouldn't have been able to..." Bark stared at Ivy, who was trying to take all of it in.

"So, that lady somehow made this chap able to commune with us," Ivy said, in his British accent. "Fascinating."

I stood up and walked to the bathroom, and proceeded to splash water on my face. This _could not _be happening! There was no possible way! Well, then again, I have been through hell and back, and traveling with a Legendary would mean some fucked up shit would happen.

Sighing, I decided to accept the fact. I mean, it's not a bad thing, right? Holy shit, this journey just got a little more fucked up. Well, training time. Perhaps doing something productive could wake from this dream.

"All right, guys. Time for training," I told my Pokemon. They groaned, eyes fixed on the TV. "Okay fine, it can wait. I'm going to go find Nikki." It was probably best that I got away from my team for the current moment.

"Um...can I go too?" Bark asked, hopping off of the bed he had climbed mere seconds before.

"I guess," I answered, even though I wanted away from these Pokemon. "Do you want me to carry you as normal?"

"Sure."

I stooped down and brought the puppy into my arms, and we continued the walk in silence. The lobby of the Center was empty, with only the nurse sitting behind the counter with the single most bored look in the world.

As the doors slid open permitting us to exit, I caught sight of what appeared to be Team Plasma grunts walking into the museum.

"Hey aren't those people Team Plasma?" Bark asked.

"Yeah, and Nikki was in the museum...Oh shit!" I ran forward, focused only on getting there. But, even with Bark, we would be outnumbered. Voi was out of the question, since I hand left my bag in the room.

"Bark, are you in fighting condition?" I asked. After the last battle with N, I wanted to make sure that I remembered to heal my team after every battle.

"Affirmative."

"Then into the fray we go," I said as we ran across into the museum. Plasma grunts were standing everywhere, and at the top of the staircase stood Nikki, Kip by her side, and Plank on the other side. On the main floor in front of them was Hawes, and another woman, presumably Lenora.

"Now, you wait! Enough fooling around!" Lenora shouted to the mob of grunts. Nikki walked down the staircase and stood next to her.

"So you've come, Gym Leader," one grunt said. "We, Team Plasma, claim this museum's Dragon Skull in the name of Pokemon liberation!" The grunts cheered, all heading towards the Dragonite skull.

"To show you we're serious, we'll steal it before your eyes!" Another shouted as he reached into his pocket. "Well, then, here's our smoke screen!" He pulled out several small orbs, and threw them to the ground. Smoke exploded everywhere, making it nearly impossible to see.

Someone bumped into me as they fled the scene. Slowly, the smoke lifted, revealing the the skull was gone. "Well, that really wasn't before our eyes. They had a smokescreen," I said as I walked over to them. Nikki gave a half-hearted wave.

Lenora walked slowly up to the skeleton, and ran off after Team Plasma.

"Oh no!" Hawes exclaimed as he saw the damage. "We have to go after them!"

"Come on!" Nikki urged me as she ran out. I took a few steps, but stopped in my tracks.

"Why am I always the one going after people like this?" I asked myself.

_Because you have what it takes to become a hero..._

It didn't sound like Voi. I looked around for the source of the voice, but Hawes was to flabbergasted to have said it, and there was no one else in the museum. My eyes settled on the black round stone next to the staircase. "As if that could talk," I muttered, deciding that it was my own messed up mind.

When I exited the museum, I saw Nikki and Lenora looking for any trace of the bandits. A man walked up to Lenora.

"Good day, Lenora," the man said plesantly. "Find any good fossils lately?"

Lenora seemed to forget about the issue at hand as she greeted the man. "This is a surprise visit. Are you suffering from artist's block again?"

She turned to me and Nikki. "Nikki! And Nikki's friend! This is Burgh. He may not look like it, but he's Castelia City's Gym Leader!"

"..Eh?" Burgh smiled. "Just looking for a change of pace." He looked around at us. "Seems hectic or something around here. What's up?"

"What's up?!" Lenora shouted back at him. Now she seemed to be concerned about the bones. "Someone just walked away with an exhibit, that's what's up!"

"Oh, hi, Trevor and Nikki!" Bianca shouted as she walked up behind us. "What's everybody doing here?"

"Well, everyone isn't here," I commented. "We're still missing-"

"Trevor, is there some kind of problem?" Cheren asked as he joined the group.

"And these two are...?" Lenora asked, looking them over.

"Cheren and Bianca," I replied, pointing at each one respectively.

"Your friends?" She asked Nikki, who nodded. "Okay then. Let's split up and search. I'll head this way," Lenora said, heading east. She had only taken a single step before turning back to us. "Everyone! I want you, Cheren and Bianca, to stay here at the museum. Burgh, you, Nikki, and her other friend go search Pinwheel Forest!"

"Got it," Burgh replied. "I'll lead the way."

"I'm counting on all of ya'll," Lenora called over her shoulder as she continued running off in her direction.

"Uh-huh. You're Nikki right?"

"Yep," she answered, picking Kip up, and returning Plank to his ball. "And this is Trevor."

Burgh smiled, before continuing. "Are you two raring to round up our robbers?" He started walking off toward the forest.

"Oh! Oh, Trevor, take this with you!" Bianca took something out of her bag and handed it to me. "Fennel gave me this Dowsing Machine to give to you."

"Thanks, but we really-"

"Now what did she tell me?" Bianca went into thinking mode, while Cheren snickered at the predicament. "You can use the Dowsing Machine to find places where items are hidden."

"So, back on topic, all we have to do is guard the museum, right?" Cheren asked.

"Right," Nikki said as she walked after Burgh.

"Hey wait for me!" I called after her, and Bianca shouted the same thing to Cheren as he walked into the museum.

"So, how'd it go?" I asked, ironic given the current situation.

"I won, barely," Nikki replied, pulling her Badge out of her pocket.

"Oh crap!" Bark, who was still in my arms, and had remained silent the entire time, looked up at me.

I set him down. "I need you to go get the others, and bring my bag along, if you can."

"I think I can do that, but I'm not sure if the others will listen to me," Bark said. "Give me about ten minutes," he continued with more confidence.

"I believe in you," I over -dramatically replied, watching as he ran on his way back to the room.

"So you came out here unprepared," Nikki noticed as Bark faded into the distance. "Don't worry, I'll protect you."

"Oh, please, I can take care of myself," I shot back, but then I felt Nikki's hand around mine. It was a plesant feeling. Holding her hand.

Kip rolled his eyes. "It's like watching a bad romance movie," he said. "I hope it doesn't become a porn flick."

I almost killed that cat. Just for ruining the moment. Maybe understanding Pokemon wasn't a good thing.

I glanced at Nikki, whose smile was barely present, but it was nonetheless there. I got a feeling inside me, one I hadn't had since I first met Dawn. I was in love.


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter Thirteen: Serene Choas_

Eterna Forest has its quirks, such as the haunted manor in it. Pinwheel Forest is different. Nothing really interesting in it that I know of, just bug Pokemon and trees. Oh yeah, and Team Plasma.

Burgh was waiting for us inside the woods, and glanced at our intertwined hands. He shrugged, not really seeming to care. "Well, you see..." Burgh said, "There are two ways out of Pinwheel Forest; the road that goes straight and the path that winds through the woods."

"We'll take the one that goes straight," I said, hopeful.

Burgh shook his head. "I'll take that one. You two can go through the forest." He pointed up the straight road. "If they're not there, I'll block the exit." Guestering to the forest path, he continued. "You'll run into a lot of Trainers, but it's basically a straight path, so I'm sure you won't get lost."

Apparently, he saw my groan when I looked down the winding path in the forest. "Keep in mind, this is for Lenora!" He took off down the nice, paved, path that presumably led to the other side of the forest.

"Well, looks like we really got screwed over on this deal," I commented, as Nikki and I walked into the woods.

"On the bright side, it's a nice nature walk," Nikki replied, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, and we get to look at all the pretty flowers as we chase Team Plasma," I retorted, in the most sarcastic tone I had.

Nikki let that conversation drop. "Shouldn't we wait for Bark to get back?" She asked, as she broke her hand from mine and leaned against a mossy rock. "Burgh has the other end closed off, so they couldn't get out while we wait."

"It could take him a while to convince the other two to come," I answered. "Ivy was on the Nature channel last time I checked, watching a show on Snivys and their evolutions. I think he was waiting for the part where they got to the mating..."

"Now that's a great mental picture. Snivy porn," Nikki said, looking down at Kip. "My little Kip doesn't know what porn is, right?"

Kip got a smile on his face. "I know quite a lot in fact. A guy and a girl get together and-"

"You'd be surprised what he might know," I said, cutting off the cat's explanation.

"What's that supposed to mean? He's a Pokemon," Nikki leaned against the rock again.

"Well, I used to think my sister didn't know what a certain word meant, but then I found out she did it on a regular basis."

"Ok, ew. Let's drop this conversation, shall we?"

"It's probably the best idea," I replied. "Bark should be back by now..."

"Sorry I'm late," Bark chimed in as he ran onto the scene. He had my jacket over his back, and behind him was Aqua, pulling my bag along the grass. Ivy followed, with a sour look on his face.

"I only need five more minutes," Ivy said in his British accent.

I picked my bag up, and pulled the strap over my shoulder. I tossed my jacket over my back, tying the sleeves together.

"Oh," Bark said. "You might have to pay the Center for a new TV remote. I kinda had to throw it out the window to get Ivy to go."

I groaned. Being able to understand Pokemon had its quirks, but leave it to Arceus to get me stuck with the most obnoxious Pokemon in the world. It made me scared to catch another.

"Let us roll-eth," I said. "Team Plasma await-eths."

"Drop the stupid talk, and let's kick some ass!" Nikki shouted, as she took off down the path. She hadn't even gone ten steps when we sighted the first grunt.

The grunt looked empty-handed, but I couldn't tell if she had stashed the skull nearby, and was waiting for someone to come pick it up.

Then, he saw us. "You stubborn brats! When I'm through with you, you won't be able to chase us around anymore!"

"If I got a nickel everytime I heard that," I muttered, as the grunt sent out a small brown and black-striped Pokemon. A quick Pokedex scan revealed it to be a Sandile.

"A Ground and Dark type, eh. They I'll use Aqua!" The water monkey ran into battle. This looked pretty easy. "Use Water Gun!"

Aqua squirted the croc with water, and the super-effective move nearly knocked it out.

"Use Sand Tomb!" The grunt seemed desprate.

"Water Gun, once more please," I said.

Aqua blasted the Sandile with another round of water, finishing it off. "You got powned, bro!" Aqua shouted at his victory.

"Too bad!" The grunt exclaimed. "I haven't got anything! If you want to get it back, then you're just gonna have to look for my associates!" That was the problem with grunts. They usually gave away a large part of the plan, or a piece of important information.

"I'll get the next grunt," Nikki told me, as the first grunt ran off into the distance. Kip was at her side, and Plank was in his Pokeball.

"Did I do good or what, bro?" Aqua asked, joining my other Pokemon, who were walking alongside me.

"You did well, Aqua," I admitted.

He looked up at me. "I'm still not used to the whole understanding us, though. But it's cool."

"Can I go in next?" Bark asked, walking in front of me.

Before I could respond, I had to stop myself, and think about what I was going to say. I had to make it look natural. So I nodded. Nikki was ahead of me, and didn't see.

The next grunt was standing out in the open, not even trying to hide. "My, my. Could you two be looking for something?" She sent out a Purrloin.

"Allright, Kip get in there!" Nikki ordered. "Use Wake-Up-Slap!" The Skitty ran at the Purrloin, smacking it in the face with his paws.

"You got bitch-slapped," Kip said, running back to his Trainer.

"Purrloin, use Sand Attack!" The purple feline kicked sand at the Skitty, lowering Kip's accuracy.

"Use Wake-Up-Slap again!" Nikki commanded her Pokemon. Kip once again smacked the daylights out of the Purrloin. The purple cat fell to the ground, knocked out.

"These people are evil," The Purrloin said with her last breath, before slipping into consciousness.

That was when I learned that being able to understand Pokemon wasn't a good thing at times. I heard their suffering, their pain. Their torture, and their pain. We humans treated some Pokemon like shit, and others like children. To this day, that Purrloin, the scared voice, the frightened eyes, and the words she said, have haunted me.

Before I could react, the grunt return the Purrloin to the Pokeball, and ran off, shouting; "Sorry! I'm empty handed."

"I'll take the next battle," I said, grimly. Perhaps I could save the next Pokemon from Team Plasma. As we walked, my mind wandered to all the battles I've had against Team Galactic, and how the Pokemon they had must've felt.

I wanted to save them, I have to save them. If that Ghetsis guy was the leader, then the next time I saw him, I could unleashed Voi on him, and end it all right there.

_Don't get that rash, dude. That's not cool._

I ignored him, and continued in silence. Nikki must ahve benn able to tell that something was wrong.

"Trevor, are you okay? Something seems wrong."

"I'm fine," I lied. I opened my bag and took out a bottle of lukewarm water and offered it to Nikki.

"Sure, thanks," she said, taking it.

"It might be a little warm," I informed her, getting out one for me. Aqua was more than happy to supply water to the other Pokemon, ice cold water.

"Does it matter?" She asked, after her first sip.

"Not really. I learned that you should be thankful for what you have before it's gone..." I looked off into the distant woods, listening to the sounds of nature. Birds chirping, Pokemon calls, and the like.

"What happened?"

Hm. She doesn't know that I know that she knows. "Now's not the time."

"Okay," Nikki replied, chugging half of her water.

After climbing up a fallen tree trunk, we spotted the next grunt. "So you made it this far!" he exclaimed. "I'll hold you here so my friends can get away!" He tossed out a Pokeball, letting out a Patrat.

"Allright, Bark, knock yourself out. Or rather, don't," I said, bringing a small smile to my face. Nikki groaned at the joke.

"Is you Trainer really that stupid?" the Patrat asked Bark. "From where I stand, you both are about to get screwed!"

Okay, perhaps I might not want to save this asshole. "Bark, use Bite!" The puppy clamped his teeth down on the rat, causing the Patrat to squeal out in pain. I still don't see battling as humane.

"Shake him off and use Sand Attack!" the grunt ordered. After shaking off the dog, the rat kicked up sand.

Time to resort to my classic strategy. "Bark use Leer!" My Lillipup glared at the rat, causing it lose some of its attack power.

"Patrat, use Sand Attack!" More sand got thrown in Bark's face.

"Bark use Bite!" Bark rushed blinding into the attack, but missed.

"Patrat, use Tackle!" The rat slammed into Bark with such a force, it surprised even me. It was a lot stronger than I had anticipated. Bark was sent flying into the air, and crashed into bushes. I was so shocked I couldn't move.

"Take that you little mother fucker!" the Patrat shouted, as he jumped in victory. "You just got powned!"

A large shape jumped out of the bushes, and landed on top of the Patrat. "Now who's getting owned?" Bark asked. He picked up the rat in his mouth, and clamped down, knocking it out.

I looked at Bark. He wasn't a Lillipup anymore. "He evolved," Nikki whispered in shock. With shaking hands, I scanned the new Pokemon. Bark was now a Herdier.

"Dude, that's awesome!" I shouted, reaching down and throwing my arms around him. "You evolved!"

"Awesome bro!" Aqua shouted, as he jumped on the back of Bark. "I christen thee my noble steed!"

Bark didn't seem to mind carrying passengers. "Ivy, you want a ride?"

"I suppose," he replied, climbing on the back of my Herdier.

When I looked up, the grunt was gone. "Onward, they can't be that much farther ahead!"

"Wait," Nikki said, getting her camera out. "I want to take a picture of them." She crouched down, and aimed her camera at my Pokemon. Kip ran out and into the picture. Sighing, Nikki let Plank out of his ball, and let him get in the picture. The camera flashed, and Nikki's Pokemon climbed up on Bark as well.

"Can you hold them all?" I asked, noticing how he seemed to be struggling with the newly added weight.

"Yeah, just getting used to the new body. Now you two Trainers don't have to worry about carrying you Pokemon, and can focus on holding hands, and making out," he replied, causing the other Pokemon to laugh.

Rolling my eyes, we continued onward. Shortly afterward, we reached a clearing. A single grunt was standing guard.

"Huh? Persuers? Uh, ha ha. Kids like you beat some of us?!" The grunt was throughly flabbergasted.

"It was all in a few minutes work," I replied sarcastically.

"That can't be helped, but...I'll take you on now!" He tossed a Pokeball out onto the ground, opening and releasing a Patrat.

"I got this," Nikki said. "Go Plank!" Her Timburr ran out into the field of battle. "Use Karate Chop!" The Timburr smacked the rat with the 2x4, and knocked it out in a single hit.

"Impressive," I complimented.

"Thanks, we went through a lot of training," Nikki informed me.

"I can tell."

Cursing, the grunt sent out another Patrat.

I facepalmed. "No wonder they keep getting their asses kicked, they can't catch anything other than Patrats."

Another two Karate Chops later, the grunt was out of Pokemon. Both Patrats were downed in a single hit, and the Sandile didn't really do much better.

"Fine, take your stupid skull," the grunt whined. He thrust the skull into my hands. "So the dream that our king had-the dream we had-won't come true..."

A green robed man pushed past me and Nikki, and went up to the grunt. "How are you holding up, fellow subject of our king?"

"Gorm of the Seven Sages!" the grunt exclaimed. "I'm mortified that this skull, which we went through so much trouble to obtain, was stolen from us so easily."

"Never under-estimate you opponet," I said, glancing at Nikki, who nodded in agreement.

"It's not important," Gorm continued, ignoring me. "We can afford to abandon the Dragon Skull. According to the results of our research, this is not the Legendary Pokemon for which Team Plasma is looking." That last bit grabbed my attention. I inform Spiri about this as soon as possible. Hey, where is Spiri?

"You can easily see that's a Dragonite skull," Nikki said, making Team Plasm look stupid.

Once again, Gorm ignored us. "It is completely unrelated." He turned to us. "But we will not allow anyone to disrupt our plans and get away with it. We will fix it so you never interfere with us again."

"You mean you're gonna kill us?" I asked, faking fear. _Get ready, Voi. You might be needed._

_I doubt it._

"Oh, sweet!" Burgh cried out as he walked up. "The bug Pokemon were getting all worked up, so here I come, and what do I spy with my little eye? This important looking guy!" Burgh really had to do the ryhme, didn't he?

"Are you here to help your friends, whom I defeated?" Burgh went on.

Lenora ran up behind us. "Nikki, Burgh, Nikki's friend! The others didn't have anything..."

I handed the skull to her. "Merry Christmas, have a Happy New Year."

She took the skull, but continued to look at Gorm. "And who are you supposed to be? Is this guy the big boss?"

"I am one of the Seven Sages of Team Plasma," Gorm explained. "Ghetsis, another of the Seven Sages, can liberate Pokemon with words alone! The remainder of the Seven Sages have ordered their compatriots to take Pokemon with full force!"

Like I said, they say way too much.

"But the odds are a little against us now," Gorm continued. "To you, the Bug Pokemon user Burgh, and the Normal Pokemon user Lenora, I say...Know your enemies, know yourself, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles...This time we shall retreat quietly. To secure the liberation of Pokemon, we will steal them from Trainers! Even though you are Gym Leaders, will not tolerate any further obstruction from you. In any case, we will settle this someday. I hope you are looking forward to that time as much as I..." Then they walked away.

"Finally, they leave," I sighed in relief.

"They're a speedy bunch," Lenora commented. "What are you planning to do Burgh? Are you going to chase after them?"

"Hmmm..." Burgh thought it over. "We got back the stolen skull, and if we corner them, there's no telling what they might do. I'l' heading back, Lenora..." He turned to us. "Well, now. Well...I'll be waiting for your challenge at Castelia City's Pokemon Gym." As he walked away, he added; "Yes indeed, I'm certainly looking forward to it!"

"Nikki! And her friend...Thank you so much. With kind Trainers caring for them, the Pokemon with you must be happy."

"Not the ones that got yanked from their TV," Bark muttered, getting a weak kick from Ivy.

"Here is a token of my gratitude. Please use it carefully!" She handed Nikki a Moon Stone.

"This is a Moon Stone!" Lenora said. I almost killed her. Just for saying that. "Some Pokemon evolve when they get near it. Now, I must take the skull back to the museum, Hawes is extremely worried..." She walked off, leaving the Nikki and I there.

"Kip'll evolve if you put that stone too close to him," I warned her, as Nikki put the stone in the bag.

"Really? I use it on him later. He's too cute now!" Kip smiled.

I fell to the ground. "I'm glad that's over. Now onto Casteila!"

Nikki smiled. "Not just yet, you forget one thing."

"Really? And what might that be?"

"Your Gym Badge," Nikki, Bark, Aqua, Ivy, Kip, Plank, and Voi all said at the same time.

"Oh, right," I replied. "That."


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter Fourteen: When the Music Fades..._

The fat man slid the folder over. "This is the one we're after."

Elroy Eustis took the folder off the desk, and looked at the picture. He slightly raised his eyebrows when he saw the three teens. The sole male had red hair, a black tee shirt, and gray jeans. One of the females had bright pink hair, wearing a leather jacket, and blue jeans. The other female had violet hair tied up in a ponytail with a red ribbon. She was wearing a red tank top, and shorts.

"Which one?" Elroy asked,

"The red-haired one," Fatty replied. "Know only as Trevor. One of our associates spotted him with a Legendary around him, believed to be with him."

Leaning back in his green leather chair, Elroy took this in. "And I assume that you also want the Legendary for our little collection, as well as this kid?"

Fatty smiled. "Exactly. As for the pay...fifty-thousand?"

"I'm afraid that you might have to do a little better," Elroy said. "Two-hundred and fifty thousand."

Losing his smile, Fatty submitted. "Deal. Get them here as soon as possible."

"Which Legendary will I be snagging this time?" Elroy asked as he stood up.

Fatty handed him another picutre.

"Well, I'll be damned."

* * *

_Back in Nacrene City Pokemon Gym_

"The match between Gym Leader Lenora and challenger Trevor had begun!" The referee shouted.

Lenora smirked as she sent out her first Pokemon out of her two. An oddly familiar Pokemon appeared on the battlefield. A Herdier.

"Go Aqua!" I know that it's not the best choice given the current situation, but I was going to keep Bark off the field until he was needed. After all, he was my strongest at the moment.

"Hey, Bark," Aqua said. "It looks like you, only stronger." He walked up to the dog. "And he doesn't smell as bad."

"Shut up, you faggot water monkey!" Bark shouted in reply. I had to resist the facepalm.

"Aqua, use Leer!" Why not start with a classic? The monkey gave the sharp and evil glare, lowering the Defense.

"Herdier use Take Down!" Lenora commanded her dog. It charged directly at my Panpour.

Thinking, I came up with a pretty decent strategy. "Try to dodge it, Aqua!"

"Oh please, as if that hadn't crossed my mind, bro," Aqua yelled, diving to the left just as the Herdier smashed into the wall behind him.

"Use Leer again!" I ordered, feeling the pressure of the battle. Fighting against Gardenia hadn't been so bad, but I had a Staravia then, and I lacked that now.

As the Panpour gave the glare, he asked a question; "You know that Leer isn't an attack right?"

"I know." It slipped out before I could think. Hopefully both Lenora and Nikki missed that slip of tounge.

"Know what?" Lenora and Nikki asked at the same time.

"I was thinking to myself," I lied, thinking out a new battle plan. Right now, the plan was to weaken the Herdier with Aqua, and then send Ivy in to finish it off with Vine Whip.

"Think more quietly next time," Nikki said.

"Use Take Down!" Lenora commanded, letting that conversation drop.

Things ended slightly worse this time. Aqua wasn't as lucky as he had been the first time. He took a direct hit. His knocked out form rolled on the ground.

"Ooh, that had to hurt," Kip commented from Nikki's arms.

In reality, it really had to. If you were a small water monkey, and you got slammed, then you most likely wouldn't feel 100% right after.

"Panpour is unable to battle, Herdier wins!" The ref shouted, earning an applause from the gathered audience. At least these people didn't hate me. I returned Aqua to his Pokeball.

"Well, then. Ivy, you're up." My Snivy huffed as he walked out onto the field, standing in front of the Herdier.

"Ivy use Wrap!" That should put some damage on it, and give a somewhat beneficial value to this fight.

Ivy shot vines out, and wrapped them around the Herdier. "Use Take Down!" Lenora once again commanded. This was really starting to suck. I might have to use Bark before I wanted to.

"Dodge it!" I shouted, hoping that we might be able to pull off this win on our first try.

Well, Ivy stood there as the Herdier ran at him. "Trust me, I got this," he said, ignoring my orders. Don't you hate that when they do that?

When the Herdier was only a few feet away, Ivy unleashed a tornado of leaves right into its face, pushing the dog back. "Told you," he replied snidely in that British accent of his that I have come to regard as slightly annoying.

"Okay, fine! Don't listen!" I yelled. "But use Leaf Tornado again."

"Fine," Ivy whined, preparing to send more leaves into the face of the Herdier.

"Herdier, use Take Down!" Lenora shouted. As if I hadn't seen that coming. The dog charged at Ivy, and jumped in the air, preparing for the killing blow.

Everything slowed down into slow motion. Ivy unleased the Leaf Tornado right as the dog began the descent. The attack knocked out the Herdier, but the KO'ed Pokemon landed right on top of Ivy knocking him out as well.

"You gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me," I said in disbelief. That was a pretty lucky shot. And that really, _really, _had to hurt.

"Both Snivy and Herdier are unable to battle! It's a tie!" Hesitant applause came from the viewers. Lenora and I were down to one Pokemon each.

"Bark get in there," I said. I hand given him one of the Chesto Berries that Cheren had given me eariler, since Nikki told me that one of Lenora's Pokemon knew Hypnosis.

"Go Watchog!" Lenora sent out wat appeared to be the evolution of Patrat, A quick scan with the Pokedex confirmed it.

"Bark use Take Down!" I shouted, planning on giving Lenora a taste of her own medicene. Bark collided with the Watchog, inflicting massive damage on the two of them.

"Watchog use Hypnosis!" Ah, there it was, my possible victory. The Watchog emitted pink waves of psychic energy, putting Bark to sleep.

But, Bark woke up thanks to the Chesto Berry. "Surprised much?" I asked.

"Very clever," Lenora admitted. "But it's not over yet."

"Oh yes it is!" Bark shouted, coming out as yips and small barks to the others in the room. He ran at the opposing Watchog, barreling into it and bringing it down to the ground.

Bark stood up weakly, but he was still in the fight, which was more than what you could say for the Watchog.

"Watchog is unable to battle, Herdier wins!" The crowd roared in applause, and some used bullhorns. Which got annoying.

Lenora reached into the pocket of her apron, and pulled out the Basic Badge. "Here, you earned it. I guess my Pokemon were still weak from the battle with your girlfriend."

"She's not my-"

"Yeah, that must be it," Nikki said, cutting me off.

"I wish you luck on your future adventures!" Lenora called after us as we left.

Night was coming on, and the stars were out in the sky. We stopped to heal my Pokemon and then continued toward Casteila. Nikki put her hand in mine, and I did nothing to stop her.

But, my mind waged an all out war on what I should do. Should I just keep Nikki as a friend, after what happened last time? Or should I let it blossom into so much more? I didn't know what to do.

We walked through the straight path in Pinwheel forest, seeing the sights that Burgh had seen when he blocked the path. Then we reached Skyarrow Bridge.

My first thoughts were: "Holy shit, where's the rest stop on that thing?" Needless to say, my feet were going to hurt in a little while.

After a few minutes of walking, we stopped to rest. I leaned over the rail, looking up at the stars.

"Beautiful sky tonight," I said, making casual conversation. "It's just like the night I arrived here."

"Yeah, it is," Nikki agreed, standing next to me. I lowered my head, and we looked each other in the eyes.

"How much do you wanna bet that they'll kiss?" Kip asked, walking over to my Pokemon.

"We ain't got any money," Aqua replied from the back of Bark, his noble steed.

"But still, look at them."

I leaned my head forward, and she did the same. Our lips almost met. Almost.

Almost, when the gunshot rang out.

_**A/N: Kinda a bad place to put an author's note, right?**_

_**Anyway, I just want to ask all readers to tell their opinion on this story. Should I change something or another? Just let me know. Tell me what you like about it.**_

_**I leave you now.**_


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter Fifteen: Relive_

Nikki leaned over the rail over looking the Castelia City bay, letting the warm tears roll down her cheeks. It had been over an hour since it happened, and the doctors at the Castelia Hospital had Trevor into surgery.

She glanced up at the stars. Stars were born everyday, and stars died everyday. People were born everyday, and people died everyday. Nikki had never thought about death much, but when it happens to you or a loved one, it has a much larger effect.

Bark stared out over the bay. The black waves of the night rolled for what seemed like hours, but what was really only minutes. Aqua leaned against the railing, quieter than a grave. Ivy sat on the ground, arms crossed, looking intently on the ground. Kip was next to Bark, watching the waves. Plank stood in place, eyes closed focusing on something in his mind.

Nikki couldn't get the image out of her head. Almost kissing. The gunshot. Trevor falling to the ground, blood flowing out of a hole two inches from his heart. It was the only image imprinted in her mind.

A doctor wearing a surgery gown walked out next to Nikki, leaning over the railing as well. The tension in the Castelia night air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"It's sick," the doctor said. "Someone would shoot a kid with the intention to kill him." He ran his hand through his black hair, sighing as he did.

Nikki looked up at the doctor, and saw the tears welling in his eyes as well. Their gaze met, and the doctor sadly shook his head. Nikki turned back to the water beneath her, letting the new wave of tears fall into the ocean.

"How...how...how bad was it?" Nikki managed to ask between sobs.

"I didn't operate on him, I was the intern, just observing," the 'doctor' replied. He looked eighteen or nineteen, with black hair and green eyes. "It's sick. I never want to see anything like that again."

"Hawk, you ok?" Another doctor, looking much older, walked out to their side.

"It's fucking sick," Hawk answered, looking down into the sea. "I watched as a kid died...I...I...I don't know how to feel."

"There was nothing you could've done," the real doctor told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're new to this. I've seen this stuff happen all the time. You learn to ignore the feelings inside of you."

Nikki erupted. "What about the feelings of the people who knew the person?" She shouted at the doctor. "Just push their feelings away, only focus on what makes you happy?"

The doctor sighed, and ignored her. "Hawk, you'll get used to it."

Hawk stared out at the ocean, making up his mind on one thing. "No. No, I won't. I'm still human, and I quit." He tossed the surgery gown to the pavement.

He turned to Nikki. "If there's anything you need, let me know. I'll be thinking about life in general." He walked away, leaving Nikki and the other doctor in silence.

"I guess this was where it was meant to end," Bark said, returning to the Pokemon of his Trainer.

"Now what happens to us?" Aqua asked, sliding to the ground.

"I suppose that Nikki will take us as her own Pokemon, and continue on her journey as soon as she get over her loss," Ivy replied, looking down at the asphalt.

Bark let a tear slide down his fur. As the strongest Pokemon in the group, he had tried to remain strong, but even tall and mighty oaks fall eventually. "Aqua, do you think you'll be okay?"

The water monkey cracked a half-hearted grin. "Man, I remember my first day with him. I thought of my new Trainer as a dumbass, but once he was able to communicate with us, he turned out to be actually pretty cool," Aqua said, trying to keep his composure. Water began to leak from his closed eyes. "This is not crying. I'm a Water-Type, this is how we...screw it."

The doctor had walked away, leaving them all in silence.

_I looked around, seeing only rocks, rocks, and more rocks in this vast desert. There was no sign of life anywhere. _

_"So this is what happens when people die," I muttered to myself. There was a sandstorm, and I saw the grains of sand pelting my skin, but I felt nothing. I guess you also lost all feeling._

_"It's been a while," a voice said from behind me. I turned a looked at the source, revealing it to be none other than Giratina._

_"S'up?" I asked casually. "Where are we? Why are we here? I'm dead right?"_

_Giratina looked down at me. "To answer your questions; the afterlife, because you're dead, and yes."_

_"Well. It sucks to be me," I said, kicking a rock and watching it go rolling across the sand. "So why are you here?"_

_"Really? You have to ask that?" Giratina sighed. "If you think about it, it'll make sense."_

_Before I could answer him, I felt a warm glow on my body. I looked up, and was blinded by a ...blinding light. I squinted, blocking out Giratina's cursing, and was able to make out a figure in the light. It was a figure I knew all to well. That sounded wrong._

_"Dawn?" I asked, knowing what the answer would be._

_"Yeah, it's me," she replied, touching down on the sandy ground. She had wings like an angel. and a golden halo. Not the type the massacred all sentient life, if you know what I mean. It's a Halo reference. Okay, back on topic._

_"What are you doing here?" I asked for a second time. Giratina watched on calmly, taking in every detail of the encounter._

_"Arceus wanted me to give you this," Dawn said, brushing some of her navy hair out of her eyes. It had seemingly grown since I had last seen her on Spear Pillar. _

_She handed me a piece of yellowing paper, which seemed to be made out of the oldest paper in the world, but yet it didn't have a rip on it. _

_"What is this?" I asked, looking down at the writing on it._

_"Read it," she replied, waiting for me to finish._

In the days of the coming of the destruction of the Battle of Armageddon,

There will arise a hero to awaken the dragon,

and bring peace to the world,

at the cost of their life.

_There was a second part, written in a poem like manner._

When the hero has won the day, using all their might,

They will be forgottem to the darkness of night.

They will be locked in a fight,

To return to the people's sight,

But true loves kiss will set the record right.

_I looked up from the paper, shaking my head. "Why does everything seem like it's from a bad romance-action movie?"_

_Dawn ignored my question, something she was known for when we travelled together. "Those are both prophecies. Can you tell me who this hero is supposed to be?"_

_"George Clooney?" I heard Giratina face-palm in the background. "Andersmith? Lenord Church? Luke Skywalker?" I wasn't really guessing. I knew it was going to turn out to be me._

_"Ah, Luke," Dawn smiled strangely at the sound of the character's name. _

_"What about him?"_

"Nothing. There is so much that comes with death. The ability to communicate with other realms-"

_"Yeah that's great, but can we stay focused?" I asked. No need for her to go all wierd on me now. _

_"It's easy to find out who that person in the prophecy is," Dawn replied. "It's will come to you in due time."_

_"It's me right?" I asked, as Dawn started to float into the sky._

_"You might be surprised."_

_I watched as she went higher and higher, until I could see her no more. The gray sky had no clouds, no sun, no moon. Just gray._

_"Well, ain't that great?" I said, turning to Giratina. "It looks like just you and me, stuck here in the afterlife."_

_Giratina smiled. "You might be surprised."_

...I heard a faint beeping sound, repeating almost every second.

"What the hell?" Someone muttered. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt glued together. I weakly threw my arm up, trying to say something, but my throat was dry and scratchy.

"Get the fucking doctor," the voice said. "He won't fucking believe this."

Spiri leaned against the wall adjacent to the room, smirk on her face.

Nikki was sitting alone in a park bench. She had tried to make it to a hotel, but the emotions had just overwhelmed her. It was the middle of the night, and she really hoped there weren't any cops around.

"Are you okay?"

Nikki glanced up at the sandy-haired boy in front of her. He wore a leather jacket, tan blue jeans, and a white and orange striped shirt under his jacket. There was a bag slung over his shoulder.

Nikki nodded, trying to get him to go away. "Please, I know better than that," the boy said, sitting down next to her. He held his hand out to her. "Name's Anthony."

"Nikki," she replied. "I was about to leave."

"You want me to walk with you?" Anthony asked. "We're in a large city in the middle of the night. You shouldn't be alone."

"Thanks for your offer, but I'm a Trainer," Nikki said, waving her hand toward the five Pokemon sitting under the bench.

Anthony scoffed. "That's it?" He tossed out one of his Pokeballs, revealing the captured to be an Infernape. "That's what I call a Pokemon."

"You always did have quite the ego."

Nikki glanced up at the voice, as did all the Pokemon. She ran over and wrapped her arms around me, crying her eyes out. "I thought you were dead!" She managed to say in between tears.

"You were dead?" Anthony asked, looking at me incredously.

"All in a days work," I replied. I put my arms around Nikki, and looked her in the eyes. "Now, where were we?"

She pushed her lips into mine, and we shared our first kiss, right there, in the middle of Casteila, in the dead of night, with Anthony watching.

"Bro, you get all the girls," he muttered, retreiving his Infernape.

"What happened?" Nikki asked, when we came up for air. "I was alone! For the first time in my life I didn't know what to do!" She buried her head in my chest, letting the tears wet my black tee shirt.

"Listen," I told her, "No matter what happens, I'll be there for you." She looked up at me, and smiled, eyes red and puffy from crying.

"But what the hell happened?" Anthony asked, ruining the moment.

"It's a long story," I said, crouching down to all my Pokemon. "I'll explain later in much greater detail."

"Holy shit, dude," Aqua shouted, jumping on my face. "You're alive!"

"What the hell happened?" Bark asked, jumping into my lap.

"You guys might be surprised at the powers of a Legendary," Ivy muttered, putting a pause on the reunion.

"What does that mean?" I asked, not caring who heard.

Ivy smirked. "I'll explain later in much greater detail."

I stood up, stretching my back. "Well, let's get a room, and call it a night," I said. "Anthony, you want to room with us for the night?"

"Why not? You only live once," he replied. "And promise me this won't turn into live porn."

"Amen, brother!" Kip shouted in agreement. Ivy just glared at him.

Anthony thought for a moment. "Well, in your case, you don't only live once."

Shaking my head sadly and flipping him off, we walked toward the Pokemon Center, bathed in the light of the moon. It had been one hell of a day.


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter Sixteen: Where We Left Off_

"So it was an equipment malfunction?"

I nodded.

"You weren't really dead, but the machine screwed up?"

I nodded again.

Anthony stared at me. "So you were up and walking, as if everything was fine less than five hours after getting shot not more than two inches from your heart?"

Shit. Didn't think that one through that far. "Yep." It had been over a week since I had gotten shot, and Anthony and I were walking through Castelia City's streets heading for the Gym. Nikki and Spiri were...somewhere, perhaps getting some gear at the Poke Center.

All of my Pokemon were, sadly, in their Pokeballs. They hated it, but I needed some quiet for a few minutes. Or a few hours.

"There it is," I said, pointing at the building with two Pokeball statues outside, and above the door was a Pokeball with spiked edges, giving it a fish shape.

"Well, good luck. I'm off to find the girls," Anthony stated as he ran off into the massive crowds of people going off in all separate directions.

I took a deep breath, and stepped inside, only for Cheren to come walking out. "Hey Trevor," he greeted, before staring at me with curious eyes. "I heard about what happened, with the shooting and all."

"Yeah," I replied. I honestly wanted people to drop that matter.

After a few seconds of silence, he realized how sensitive the subject was, and Cheren continued. "I just challenged Gym Leader Burgh." He gestured to the door, "He's a seasoned Gym Leader. He really made me work for that Badge." Cheren smiled, and went on. "But for me, Bug-Types aren't really a challenge."

I glanced down at my Pokeballs. "Yeah, I'm going to have to work on that." I had a Water-Type, a Grass-Type, and a Normal-Type. Nothing strong to Bugs, and one weak to them.

Cheren ignored me. "I'm going to keep winning like this against all of the Unova region's Gym Leaders! Then I'll head to the Pokemon League and beat the Champion! I'll be the most powerful Trainer in the region!"

I was about to tell him that power wasn't everything. I mean, Cyrus had Dialga and Palkia, and look how that turned out. He's stuck in the Distortion World. I had sent some teams to see if they could find him to put him to justice like in the movies, but they don't really work for free you know.

He went down the street, leaving me standing there. Burgh walked out of the Gym. "You're one of the ones that fought Team Plasma in Pinwheel Forest..."

I nodded.

"Trevor...right?"

"Yep," I answered.

"You're here to challenge the Gym, I suppose?" He seemed slightly on edge, and kept looking off into the crowds and mobs of people, as if searching for something.

"Why else would I be standing outside of it?"

Burgh shrugged. "I'm afraid that the challenge will have to wait. I was informed that Team Plasma has shown up!"

I groaned. "Of course they're here! Why wouldn't they be?" They were everywhere. You could go to the moon and they would probably be there.

"Come with me," Burgh ordered. "We're going to the dock at Prime Pier!" He ran off in the same direction that Cheren had gone. I ran after him, and followed him all the way until we reached a dock. There was a strange black boat docked there.

"Come on! This way!" Burgh urged. I saw Bianca standing next to a unidentified girl. "Team Plasma...They took this young lady's Pokemon," Burgh explained as I walked up.

Bianca had tears rolling down her cheeks, but she seemed to be taking it well. My mind flashed back to the time Dawn got her Pokedex and Pokemon taken by Team Galactic. Needless to say, those grunts either got demoted to latrine duty, or fired.

"Trevor, isn't there anything we can do for my Munna?" She looked up at me, and I saw the pain in her eyes, all the worry and fear as well.

There was silence, until the mystery girl spoke up. "I heard this lady's screams, and I took off after the theif as fast as I could."

"That was brave," I commended. "Although they could have easily overpowered you, and taken your Pokemon as well."

"Yeah right, as if," she spat back. "As I was saying, the city is so big that I lost them."

"Iris," Burgh replied softly. "You did everything you could."

Iris stomped her foot. "But what they did was bad! Taking people's Pokemon is bad! We should really do something about those assholes, and stop things like this from happening!" Tears glistened in her eyes, even though it wasn't her Pokemon that was taken.

"I'm sorry," Iris apologized. "I let my anger get in the way. But we really should do something!"

"Then it looks like we have to get Munna back," I said.

"Agreed," Burgh agreed. "Now, that being said, where can we find them?"

That was the problem. There was no way of finding them in this giant city, so we're kinda screwed for the moment. That was until a Team Plasma grunt walked up.

"I spy a Gym Leader?" She said to herself.

_Oh, great, _I thought to Voi. _Twenty bucks says she'll practically tell us where their base is._

_You're on._

"Screw this!" The grunt ran off.

"After her!" Burgh shouted. "Iris, stay by the young lady's side!" He ran off after the fleeing grunt.

"I'm gonna be Bianca's bodyguard," Iris said.

"I don't care!" I shouted, running after Burgh. I ran down the streets the way we had come, and saw nothing. "Great, I think I might be lost as well," I whined, noting that I couldn't recgonize any of the buildings.

"What's up?" Nikki asked, as she walked up beside me. Spiri wasn't with her, which meant that she could be anywhere.

"Oh, Team Plasma took Bianca's Munna, and I was getting it back," I explained, looking around the city.

"And you got lost, right?"

"Pretty much."

"Don't you have a map?"

"It was in my jacket," I said. I honestly didn't have a single clue as to what had happened to my jacket, it just vanished.

Nikki sheepishly smiled, and rubbed the back of her neck. "Yeah, I gave that to Spiri for safe keeping." She looked at me. "You really might want to change into a new shirt, though."

"Why?" I asked, looking down at my black T-shirt. The reason was rather obvious. The bullet hole was still in the shirt, just below where my heart was. "Oh, that. It's barely noticable."

Giggling, Nikki grabbed my hand. "I saw Burgh over that way, so he might be able to help."

Well, after a few minutes of practically getting dragged down the street, we regrouped with Burgh.

He looked over, acknolodging our presence. Three grunts were blocking the entrance to the building in front of us.

"This is definitely the place," Burgh said.

"And what tipped you off?" I asked, locking eyes with all three of the grunts.

The lead grunt spoke up. "There's no one here! Not a soul! No other Team Plasma members, nor any of the Seven Sages, are inside."

"Well, then why in the hell would you be guarding an empty building?" I questioned. The grunts must have thought that I was stupid if they thought that I was going to believe what they had said.

"If you think I'm lying, then why don't we have a battle and find out?" the grunt replied, smirking.

"Because, I'll whip your ass, just like always."

The grunt's smirk became wider. "You two take the tall guy," he ordered the other grunts. "I'll take the weak looking runts."

"You want to go first?" I asked Nikki.

She nodded. "It won't take too long."

The grunt sent out his Sandile, and Nikki went with Plank. Fighting trumphs Dark.

"Sandile use Sand Attack!" The little alligator or crocodile, which ever it was, swept up a small sandstorm, and launched it a Plank. He took it well, just losing some accuracy.

"Plank, Karate Chop!" Nikki commanded. Plank shot off the ground and into mid-air, raising its stick and preparing to strike. The Sandile attempted to move, but didn't act in time. Plank swung the stick down as he fell, and majorly injured the Sandile.

But, Sandile was still in the fight.

"Bite!" The grunt roared. Honestly, these guys really should take a course in battling, instead of just going with the flow. Using a Dark move on a Fighting-Type. Idiot.

Plank smacked the crocodile as it got close with another Karate Chop, effectively knocking it out.

"That was fast," I commented. "Burgh hasn't finished his fight yet."

"Hey!" The grunt shouted as Nikki and I walked over to Burgh's fight to observe.

"Hey," I said back.

"I still have one more," the grunt yelled, waving his Pokeball around in the air like a lunatic. "Unless you're afraid."

I reached down and grabbed Ivy's Pokeball. "I'll finish you off, so we can leave." I released Ivy from his ball.

The grunt, of course, let out another Sandile. This was going to be easier than I thought.

"Ivy, use Vine Whip," I ordered, not interested in the battle.

"Whatever," Ivy replied, lashing out his vines and smacking the sand crocodile, finishing it ff in a single move.

"This is bad," the grunts all muttered in unsion, backing away from their opponets. "We'll have to report this to the Sages right now!" They ran off into the building.

"Phew, we got lost," Iris said as she and Bianca joined us.

"Yeah, join the club," I muttered, returning Ivy to his ball.

"Even with directions from the Xtranseiver, I couldn't figure it out," Iris continued, ignoring my comment.

"Wait, this thing gives directions?" I looked at the device on my wrist. "That would have been nice to know sooner." Nikki punched my shoulder. "What was that for?"

"You should've figured that out sooner," she answered, smiling.

"Right..." Burgh said. "So, anyway, Team Plasma is inside," he pointed at the building. "The stolen Pokemon may be in there as well." He took a deep breath. "Ok, I'm going in!"

"I'll join the fight this time," Iris said. She tugged on Bianca's sleeve. "You too. It's for you Pokemon."

"All right," Bianca replied, putting on a brave face, althought I could see through it. "Trevor and Nikki, you come too." And then Iris drug, dragged, or whatever, her into the building.

"Yeah, like we planned on standing here doing absolutely nothing," I commented, even though they didn't hear.

"Then why are we standing here doing absolutely nothing?" Nikki asked. In truth, that's exactly what we were doing.

"Right, then let's do this!" I ran into the building, prepared for Team Plasma's worst. And from what I've seen so far, it probably couldn't be that bad.

The inside was nothing really special. No flashy Team Plasma stuff or the like. Ghetsis stood next to two other Sages, and the grunts were behind them, cowering.

"My word," Ghetsis said with mock shock. "If it isn't the Gym Leader, Burgh." An ominous smile slowly across his face.

"What would you say the guiding principle of Team Plasma is?" Burgh asked in response, folding his arms across his chest, taking a defensive stance. I did the same, edging toward Nikki, ready to protect her.

"Is it to just take what you want from people?" Burgh went on, taking a step forward. "And why in the hell would you build a base right in the middle of a heavily populated city?"

"I thought it would have been amusing, since no one would think that we would be in such a place," the Sage with a dark green hat replied. "But we were found out faster than I thought."

I face-palmed. This was one of their leaders? Sad. "Dumbass..." I muttered.

"Indeed," Ghetsis said. Whether it was to the Sage or me, I don't know. "It doesn't matter; we already have an execptional base of operations." He paused, and the smile faded. "Is everyone familiar with the legend of the founding of Unova?"

"I am!" Iris shouted, raising her hand as if she was in school. "It was the dragon Pokemon, right?"

Ghetsis took a step forward. "The truth is this..." He took a step to the left. "The dragon appeared before a hero who sought to knit a world of warring people. The dragon shared its knowledge and bared its fangs at those who stood against it."

Nikki felt something happen. Her eyesight blurred, and she fell to her knees, her hands flying up to cover her ears to stop the ringing that had started. She grunted as she squeezed her eyes shut.

As soon as it had started, it was all over.

_Nikki carefully opened her eyes, only to see that she wasn't in the building with Team Plasma, but out in the middle of a valley, with green grass growing all around. A mass of tents indicated that someone was camping here, and they weren't alone._

_A large group of people charged at the tents, weapons in hand. However, they weren't modern weapons, but swords and spears and such. _

_The occupants of the tents rushed out and grabbed their own weapons, ready to face them head on, but a large shadow flew over the valley. Nikki looked up, but the sun was too bright to allow her to see the flying creature. _

_All of a sudden, the creature landed, and revealed itself to be a dragon, white in color with a fire red tail. It roared, and released a wave of flames, stopping both armies in their tracks. _

_"You know why I showed you this, right?" A voice asked, causing Nikki to jump._

_She looked over to see a person, dressed completely in black. "Who are you?"_

_"You'll know in time, and this is not the last you'll see of me." His voice was deep, and kinda condesending, like a god. With a flash, _everything was normal again.

"Are you okay?" Nikki looked over at me, nodding. "What happened?" I asked putting my arm around her and helping her stand.

"I-I-I don't know," she answered, and I led her out of the building. We sat down on a bench on the side of th steet. "It was like a dream."

"Go into detail and don't leave anything out," I commanded, looking her in the eyes. She told me everything. The valley, the battle, the dragon, and the man in black.

I mused it over, thinking about it. "Well, it coincides with what Ghetsis was saying, kinda." I thought some more. "That man in black could have been a Legendary."

"Which one?" Nikki asked, staring down at the concrete sidewalk.

"I don't know," I said. "I'm not a master on them or anything."

_You got that right, _Voi interjected snidly.

_Shut up, _I thought back. "Was there anything else? Anything at all? Sometimes the smallest detail makes a big impact," I said, while watching a woman stare at us while talking on a cell phone from across the street.

"He said it wouldn't be the last time I saw him," she replied, voice shaky. "Trevor, I'm scared of him."

I pulled her closer to me. "Don't worry, I'm with you, I always will be."

"Not in my thoughts, like that dream or whatever." A tear began to roll down her cheek.

I smiled. "I think I can arrange that, as soon as we find Spiri."

* * *

_-Veilstone City, Sinnoh Region_

Cyrus rubbed his sleepy eyes as he stared at the computer screen. For the past hour, he had been looking through the Galactic database, and deleting all the info on their old plans and schemes.

His stumbled on the data on the Red Chain and Dialga and Palkia. He was about to delete it, when he was interrupted.

"Master Cyrus?" A young woman of about seventeen years of age walked in. She had copper colored skin, silver hair, dark green eyes, and was wearing the basic Team Galactic uniform.

"Kristen, I told you to drop the 'Master' last week, didn't I?" Cyrus asked, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked up at her. "You're not wearing your usual outfit, with the blue combat pants and leather jacket."

"You noticed," Kristen replied. "Believe it or not, clothes do have to be wahsed."

Kristen Moore was among the seven new recruits that Team Galactic after they publicly announced their change of plans. Needless to say, people still had some hard feelings.

Cyrus turned his attention back to the computer. "Is that all you came here for?" He looked at the picture on the screen of Dialga.

"Nope." She pulled out a manila folder from under her arm. "We found him."

Taking the folder, Cyrus opened it and stared at a scene in the picture. A teen boy had his arm around a teen girl, and there was a third girl in the back ground, somehow not seen by the others. His tired eyes rested on the boy's face, and he saw the face of the teen who practically single handedly taken down Team Galactic.

"Agent Sarah Palmer sent that in fron Casteila City, in the Unova reigon," Kristen informed him.

"Prepare a chopper, and get Saturn and his team there. I'll be there in five minutes," Cyrus ordered.

"Yes sir," Kristen aknowledged as she ran out of the room.

As he stared at the picture of the Temporal Pokemon, a plan began to form. He was married once, and left his wife shortly before she had given birth to their daughter. Perhaps he could go back in time and set things right.

He didn't even know the name of his daughter, and that annoyed him. It would be easy to go and look it up in the medical records, but he always wanted it to remain anonymous.

But, curiousity killed the cat.

Using his handheld datapad, he went to Sandgem Town's medical records, and accessed the live birth section. He went back fourteen years, and pulled up his wife's name, and looked away before the page was loaded.

He didn't want to look.

It had the potential to mess up his life.

He looked at his daughter's name for the first time...

...and he wished he hadn't.


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter Seventeen: Introdcing Zen, the Little Red Fireball_

Nikki calmed down after a few more minutes, and we were ready to go. But as we stood up, Ghetsis and the other Sages left the building in a hurry, followed by the grunts that we had slaughtered in the earlier battles.

"They're getting away!" I shouted, and I was about to take off after them when Burgh grabbed my arm.

"It's all over," he said. "We got the Munna back, so just let them go."

I frowned. "You and I both know that they'll steal more Pokemon in the future, right?" I tore my arm out of his grasp, but Team Plasma was long gone.

"Perhaps, but we'll have to deal with that when it happens," Burgh replied. "Well, I'll be waiting at the Gym for your challenge." He walked across the street, and into his Gym.

Bianca and Iris stood there for a minute, silence hanging over us all. "We're off to explore the city!" Iris yelled after a minute, and ran off pushing Bianca with her.

I looked at Nikki, who, like me, was standing, still in slight shock over the incident. I tried to lighten the mood. "You going for the Gym first?" I asked.

"Uh...sure," she answered. I was glad when I saw the smile form on her face. "I'll beat you to this one as well." Nikki ran off into the Gym, leaving me behind on the crowded street with mobs of people walking to and from places.

"I'll think I'll train first," I said to no one in particular. I reached for my Pokeballs, and a few seconds later, Ivy, Bark, and Aqua were standing next to me.

"Holy shit," Aqua exclaimed, taking in the sight of all the people. "That's a lot of people."

"We're in a city, dumbass," Bark said. "What were you expecting?"

"And now you can understand why I kept you guys in you balls," I sighed, walking over to a map of the Unova region. "According to this, there is a desert just north of the city."

"And, so?" Ivy asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"Deserts means Ground-Types, which means you and Aqua are about to get some training in," I told the Grass snake, who just shrugged.

Spiri walked up out of no where, inspecting her fingernails. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," I asnwered. "And where the hell have you been?"

"Shopping."

"Right, as if I would believe that," I muttered. "Listen, I have a personal favor to ask."

"Oh, I think I know what you want," Spiri said, smiling. "You and Nikki want to have sex and-"

"What?!" I exclaimed, getting strange glares from random passerbys. "That has nothing to do with what I was going to say!"

Spiri's smile widened. "I know. Since I'm stuck with you for this journey, I get to make you feel completely uncomfortable along the way."

Oh, that's just motherfucking lovely. "The thing is, Nikki had a vison-y thingy, and it creeped her out," I said. "And in case it happens again, I want you to see if you can put me in her head so I'll be there."

"I'll see what I can do," Spiri replied with a nod. "No garuntees, though."

"That's all I wanted." I looked around at my Pokemon. "Now, if there's no more distractions, we'll go training."

My cellphone vibrated in my pocket.

"Of course," I muttered under my breath as I checked it. My sister was trying to Skype me. "Perfect." I pressed the button, and my sister appeared on the screen. She had brown hair, blue eyes, and looked nothing like me.

"Guess what, big brother!" she shouted into her phone so loud that I could probably hear her without the phone.

"What?" It couldn't have sounded more uninterested at all.

"You're not the only good Trainer in the family!" She held up a Gym Badge that I have never see before. "The Stone Badge from Hoenn."

"That's nice, Ashlyn," I said, pulling out my badge case, and pointed at my two newest. "The Trio and the Basic Badge from Unova." I turned the section of the case over. "And all the Sinnoh badges."

"So what if you have more Gym Badges than I do? You can't have a Pokemon cuter than KFC," Ashlyn said as she held up a Torchic that seemed to be happy.

"You named your Torchic KFC? What the hell is wrong with you?" I heard my Pokemon snickering in background.

Ashlyn smiled. "Nothing at all. And some day, I'll be the Hoenn Champion, and we'll face each other one on one, and we'll see who's better." And with that, she ended the video chat.

"Spiri," I said. "You might want to get Arceus to keep a better watch over Hoenn; my sister is a new Trainer there."

"Duely noted," she replied, sticking her hands into the pockets in her leather jacket. "If she's anything like you, I would be worried."

"Yeah, I would have to agree with her," Bark said, walking alongside of me as we headed for the desert on Route 4.

Aqua ran up next to Bark, and jumped on the Herdier's back. "I'll argee with my valient steed," the water monkey said. "After all, you are a weird Trainer."

Rolling my eyes I answered: "Have you ever been under control of another Trainer before?"

"Nope."

"Then how would you know if I was a weird Trainer?"

The water monkey let a smile creep across his face. "Compared to your girlfriend, you ain't normal. She always gets the Badge first, even though she only has two Pokemon."

"Well, she can't understand her Pokemon," I said back. "If she could, she'd go nuts." Finally, we passed through the gate and out into the desert. Skeletal frames of unfinished buildings stood out in the middle of the sand, and several construction workers were braving the sandstorms in order to complete the structures.

"Okay, I guess we start training," Aqua said, jumping off of Bark's back. "What do we train against? There's nothing out here."

"Nothing but sand, sand, and more fucking sand," I interjected, using my hand to block the sand from getting into my eyes.

"That's probably because the wild Pokemon wouldn't be so close to the construction," Bark told us.

"Well, duh," Aqua shot back, watching as sand stuck to him. "Why do I have to be the Water-Type? The sand is getting all over me."

"Quit you bitching, and let's go," I ordered, trudging through the sand and out into the middle of the desert. So far there was nothing in sight.

"Perhaps we should have planned this outing a little better," Ivy said in his high-pitched British accent. "Then we would have a way out of the desert when we got lost."

"We're not lost," I replied.

"Not yet."

"Why do all of you not think that I am a capable Trainer?"

Spiri tapped her chin. "There was that time that your finger started to bleed when you were peeling an orange. That was pretty pathetic."

"And the time you forgot to heal us," Bark chimed in.

"Then you got lost," Aqua said, jumping onto the bandwagon.

_And you let your emotions get in the way, _Voi thought into my head.

"Okay," I conceded, completely ignoring the voice in my head. "In fairness, I brought on that myself." Just ahead of us, I caught sight of something red in the sand. "What is that?"

Spiri, Bark, Aqua, and Ivy stared at me. I could feel the mental eyes of Voi staring at me as well. "What?"

"Even I can tell that's a Pokemon," Ivy said, pointing his stubby green hand at the red thing. "And I can't even see with all the sand there is in the air."

Taking out my Pokedex, I scanned it. "It's a Darumaka, the Zen Charm Pokemon," I read off the screen. "And it's a Fire-Type." I put the Pokedex back into my bag. "Aqua, get in there so we can catch it."

He sighed. "Of course I go first," He whined. "I'm tired."

"Just use Water Gun," I said, starting to get annoyed. "And, after we're done here, I'll treat everyone to dinner at the nicest resturant in the city."

"Okay, I have a new motive," Aqua noted. "Just keep in mind that we should go to one of those Chinese buffets."

Bark nodded. "Definitely an all-you-can-eat place. Otherwise we'd run you out of money."

Ivy scoffed. "Please. You should take us and the ladies to a nice five-star resturant. The ones where you have to wear suits and ties."

I thought about that for a moment. "I'll make you a deal, Ivy." He perked up and listened. "If you'll sit through the Chinese buffet, then once we reach Nimbasa, we'll go to the Royal Magikarp with Nikki's parents. It's a surprise I'm planning."

Ivy's eyes got wide. "The Royal Magikarp? Despite the name, you have to be famous or royality to even get in!"

"Trust me," I reassured him. "I got that covered."

"Deal." I crouched down to him held my hand out. He shook it with his two small hands.

"If you two are done negotiating, some help would be great!" Aqua shouted. I looked over and groaned. The water monkey had gone and tackled the Darumaka, and the two were struggling around, rolling in the sand.

"Bark, why don't you go in and help him?" I asked as I stood up and brushed the sand off of me.

"Actually, that is funny to watch," Bark answered. "If I had opposable thumbs, I would be filming this right now."

"Seriously, help!" Aqua screamed.

"Just use Water Gun," I said.

"Oh, yeah. That," Aqua responded. A second later ,water sprayed all over the Darumaka, knocking it off of my monkey.

I pulled out an unused Pokeball and threw it at the fire ball.

"Ow! That hit me, you fucktard!" Aqua yelled.

"I'm sorry, I can't see so well through the sand," I said, rolling my eyes. Walking over, I mused that the ball would still be usable, since it hadn't tried to catch a Pokemon.

I picked it up, and threw it again. This time it hit its mark. The Darumaka was absorbed by red light and sucked into the ball.

One roll. Two rolls. Three rolls. Click. I threw my hands up in triumph. "We did it! We caught a new Pokemon!"

"Yeah, _we,_" Aqua complained as he rubbed his sore back. "That really hurt. I hit a rock."

I sent out my newest member of the team, Zen. "Welcome to the team," I greeted, and guestured over to the other Pokemon. "Those are your new friends; Ivy, Bark, and Aqua," I said, pointing to each one respectively.

"That's nice," Zen replied, still oblivious to the fact that I could understand him. He had one of those smooth jazz voices, kinda deep and whatnot. "But where are all the chicks? I need to get laid."

_Of all the Darumakas in the world, it looks like you caught a perverted one, _Voi said. _This ought to be good._

_Shut your face. _

Then, Zen set his eyes upon Spiri. "Hello baby," he said, looking her up and down. "I've never done a human chick before, but I can still rock you world."

"Okay," I interjected quickly, before the situation got any worse. "Let's find Nikki and get dinner."

* * *

"So, it's a date?" Nikki asked, pinning her third Gym Badge to her bag strap.

"Yeah," I nodded. "And how do you always get the Badges before me? You only have a Skitty and a Timburr."

"Girdurr," she corrected. "He just evolved." She pointed at Plank, who had gone and joined the group of Pokemon. They were all marvelling at his new body.

"It's going to be just the two of us right?" Nikki pointed at Spiri. "What about her?"

"Trust me, I got that covered."

She smiled, which got my heart racing. "I think tonight will be a great night." Then she caught sight of Zen. "Who's the new guy?"

"Oh, that's Zen," I answered. "He's a Darumaka. I would be careful around him, though."

Nikki looked at me. "He might set me on fire, right?"

"We'll go with that."

An hour later, we reached A Little Piece Of Everything. It was a buffet with food from all over the world.

All of our Pokemon were following behind us, plus one Vulpix.

"You know," Spiri said, from her temporary Vulpix body. "This is a whole new experince for me. I feel so small."

"You know, baby," Zen started. I rolled my eyes. "If we go out back, I'll show you a good experince. I can...(Censored) and (Censored) you all night."

"Sure," Spiri turned and walk back out the door, followed closely by Zen, who was throwing his fists in the air.

Nikki watched them leave. "Where are they going?"

"I have no idea," I lied, trying to erase what I had heard from my perverted Darumaka.

We were escorted to a table, and after a few minutes, a waiter came by. "Can I get you some drinks?"

"I'll have a Pepsi," Nikki answered.

"Root beer for me," I said.

"Allirght. And I presume water for your Pokemon?"

Aqua jumped onto the table, raising his fists in protest. "I want beer!"

"Me too!" Kip as he too jumped onto the table.

"Yes, they'll have water," I said.

"Very well," the waiter replied. "The plates are at the buffet, and I do hope you enjoy." He walked off to get our refreshments.

I put te flag at our table up, to indicate that the table was taken and we were getting our food. "Nikki, you take your Pokemon, and I'll take mine," I said as I stood up from the table.

"Kay," she replied, and we headed off to get our food.

_-An Hour Later..._

To say the least, that was a complete disaster. Aqua chugged down a man's beer from a different table when I went to get seconds, and thus, choas ensued. He and Kip got into a food fight, and believe it or not, when you're at a buffet, you have plenty of ammo.

I sighed as I looked at the sleeping drunk water monkey in my arms. "That couldn't have gotten any worse," I said. At looked at Nikki, and saw the disappointed look in her eyes. "I'm sorry that we got kicked out. I'll make it up to you."

"It wasn't you fault," she replied. "But next time, the Pokemon are staying in the Center."

"Agreed." I thought out a plan. "Tomorrow morning, I'll face Burgh, and then we'll head north to Nimbasa City, which we should reach around lunchtime."

Nikki smiled. "I know a good place to grab a bite to eat," she said. "After all, I grew up there."

"I know," I answered.

"If you want, I'll hold the town drunk," Bark offered. I nodded, and layed the Panpour across his back. "And now you two can hold hands."

That was a great idea. I wrapped my hand around hers, and she smiled. We walked back to the Pokemon Center, and up to our room. I plopped down on the first bed a saw and grabbed the TV remote.

I was slightly suprised when Nikki curled up next to me. But, I put my arm around her, and flipped throught channels with my free hand.

"You know, I like travelling with you," I told Nikki.

"And I like travelling with you," she said back, looking up at me and into my eyes. Slowly, I leaned in for kiss, and our lips met. We stayed like that for what seemed like forever, but it was only about five seconds.

She smiled as we pulled apart, and rested her head on my shoulder. I smiled as I looked for the BattleNet channel, hoping to see some good fights.

Bark was curled up at the foot of the bed, asleep. Ivy was laying on the other bed, asleep. Kip was curled in a ball on the dresser, asleep. Plank was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, holding his steel beam like a teddy bear, asleep. Aqua was laying over an arm of the couch like a ragdoll, passed out.

Nikki fell asleep, and then I drifted off...

Spiri walked in the room, returned to her normal pink-hair human form. Zen was in her arms, smile wider than the ocean.

"Now I can tell people that I fucked a Vulpix that turns into a human," he said. "That was awesome."

Spiri nodded. In all honesty, they never really did it. Spiri put him to sleep with her pyschic powers, and then implemented memories into his head. It was a plan to get Zen away from Trevor and Nikki's date so he wouldn't screw it all up. But, apparently, Aqua had done that.

She set the Darumaka on the dresser that held the TV, and smiled when she saw the two sleeping Trainers. She moved the Snivy off of her bed, and was so also asleep.


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter Eighteen: Going for Third_

Rain was pelting the roof of the Pokemon Center, which was starting to drive me insane. I looked at myself in the mirror as I adjusted my hat, and then my jacket, which I had recieved from Spiri. The bullet hole was still in the sleeve, but that was something I wasn't going to worry about right now. I had to prepare for my match against Burgh.

My Pokemon were awake, even though it was 9:34am. They usually slept later than that. "Ivy, you'll sit this fight out, since you're weak to Bug-Types," I thought out loud, planning my fight.

"Thank heavens," he replied. "I didn't really want to get slaughtered in the first round."

"Aqua and Bark, you two are going to cause as much damage as you can," I said, as we headed for the door. "Okay with you?"

"Just as long as we don't get killed by a giant insect, I'll be fine," Bark answered, and Aqua responded by nodded. Apparently, my water monkey is hungover.

I looked over at Nikki, who was still sleeping soundly. Spiri was as well, just she had rolled off her bed, and was spread out on the floor. "Zen," I said as I opened the door. "You'll be the hard hitter."

"Don't worry," Zen started. "I'll nail 'em with my hot-"

Aqua, despite his semi-drunken state, smacked Zen with his tail.

"-fire," Zen finished, mumbling something under his breath. And on that note, we headed out onto the streets.

The mobs of people were smaller than they had been yesterday, but they were still pretty huge. And, for quite the obvious reason, almost all of them had umbrellas.

After what seemed like an hour of pushing our way through the crowds, we stood before the Gym. "All right, guys," I said to my Pokemon, switching to pep talk mode. "Once we win here, we'll almost be half-way to all eight."

"You do know that it'll take us at least until sometime next month before we have them all," Ivy said.

"It's June 11th, so I'd guess roughly around July 27th," I guessed, randomly. "Well, then, let's do this!" I dashed into the Gym, followed by some not so enthusiasical Pokemon.

"Hi, Clyde," I greeted the man standing near the entrance of the Gym.

"What's up future Champion?" he asked, reaching for a bottle of water on the chair next to him. "Here, another Fresh Water."

"Thanks," I said, taking it and putting it into my bag. "Any tips?"

He shrugged. "The honey walls might seem inpassable, but just charge right through them. And look for the switches on the floor."

"Okay...thanks," I replied, walking out into the main room of the Gym, and the room was split up into several smaller rooms, separated by walls, and sections of giant honey slabs. It reminded me of the man I rescued from Team Galactic back in Florama Town. Or was it Floroma Town? Damn, I can't ever remember the name.

"So, how do we get through the wall of honey?" Aqua asked from Bark's back.

"Like this," Bark answered, and ran through, taking the Panpour with him.

I took a running jump into the honey wall, and surprisingly, I went thourgh it easily. Zen and Ivy followed. "I assume this is one of those switches," I thought out loud, as I stepped on a yellow button on the floor that looked like a coin from a Mario game.

Through part of a wall that was too small for many things to fit through, I saw a light on a pillar turn green, and a gate blocking a honey wall sink into the floor. "That's where we're going," I said, as we continued on through the mess.

Finally, after a long time of button pressing and running through honey, I stood before Burgh.

"It's about time," the bug man said, yawning. "I was beginning to think that you were never going to make here." He waved his hand toward the battlefield. "Shall we?"

"Let's shall," I replied. "Zen, you're up first." The fire Pokemon slowly clambered into the field, and prepared for the battle.

"Whirlipede, you'll start ne off," Burgh said, as he tossed a Pokeball to reveal a curled up bug, with pointy antenna coming off the body.

"Zen, use Fire Fang!" I ordered. Zen's mouth instantly caught on fire, he ran at the bug, and bit down, inflicting massive damage. "Nicely done," I comended him.

"Thanks," Zen said back. "I'll try even harder if you can catch girl Pokemon later." I rolled my eyes.

"Use Poison Tail," Burgh commanded his Pokemon. The insect lashed out, and struck Zen with a poisonous tail. Zen flew up in the air, but landed on his feet.

"I'm fine," he simply said.

"Use Fire Fang again!" Zen once again ran at the Whirlipede, and bit down on the exoskeleton, setting it on fire, and knocking out the bug.

"Bravo," Burgh praised, clapping his hands gentlely. "I didn't know if you had it in you to pull off a KO."

"You'd be surprised at what I've done before," I shot back, smirking.

"One of those things you've done wasn't your girlfriend," Zen muttered, getting a couple of laughs from my other Pokemon. I once again rolled my eyes.

"Go Dwebble!" Burgh's next Pokemon was a hermit crab backed into a rock shell. I was hoping it was Rock-Type.

"Zen, I'm pulling you out," I ordered. "Aqua, you're up."

The water monkey sighed as he walked up to the battlefield. "Let's just get this over with," he moaned. "I think I might puke."

"Aqua use Water Gun!" My Panpour sprayed the rock crab with water, doing super-effective damage. But still, the Dwebble held out.

Burgh seemed to already know that his Dwebble wasn't going to hold out against what was left, so he began to work on weakening my Pokemon so he could finish them off with his last Pokemon. "Dwebble, use Sand Attack!"

The crab kicked up sand into Aqua's eyes, causing the Panpour to curse. "Just when I thought I was free of the sand," he muttered. "Water Gun, I suppose?"

"Water Gun," I agreed. The blast of water knocked Dwebble back, but not out. "Damn, that Dwebble is endurant," I thought out loud. I really had started to do that a lot.

"Smack Down!" The Dwebble shot a rock at Aqua, hitting him square in the chest. Aqua fell to the ground, and rolled a few feet. He was knocked out.

_It was because he was hungover, _Voi suggested. _Otherwise, it wouldn't make any sense to be a OHKO._

_That's what I figured_, I replied. "Ivy, go in and finish him with a Leaf Tornado."

My Snivy ran into battle, and cooked up a tornado of leaves, and shot them at Dwebble. The force of the move knocked the hermit crab back into the wall, knocking him out.

"Trevor; two, Burgh; One," Clyde said, as he wandered over to watch the battle.

Burgh smiled. "It won't be like that for long." He reached for his last Pokeball. "Go, Leavanny!" A giant insect materialized on the field, arms like blades of grass, and legs composed of leaves. "Use Struggle Bug!"

Leavanny flailed around, limbs smacking into Ivy, and knocking him out from the super effective move.

"This went to hell fast," I muttered. "Bark, use Take Down."

"Don't worry, I got this," he said as he ran full force at the giant bug. He jumped up prepared for the tackle.

"Use X-Sissor!' Burgh shouted. Leavanny slashed its arms out in an X, knocking Bark off course and into a wall. "Now use Razor Leaf while the Herdier is down!" Multiple leaves shot out of Leavanny's body, and impacted on Bark, which knocked him out.

"Oh, come on!" I looked down at Zen. Since he was a Fire-Type, we still had a shot at this. "Zen use Fire Fang!" Zen began to rush at Leavanny.

"Counter with X-Sissor!" Burgh shouted. It all came down to this. Zen was still wounded from the opening battle with Whirlipede, while Leavanny remained untouched.

Zen jumped up and was heading directly for Leavanny's face. The bug had its arm blades ready and slashed forward...and missed by less than an inch. Zen bit down on Leavanny's face, scoring a critical hit, doublely-super-effective, one hit knock out.

Burgh smiled as he looked at his last Pokemon, on the ground in front of him. "Lucky shot, not skill," he said. "But that won't change anything." He pulled the Badge from one of his pockets. "You earned the Insect Badge!"

I smiled at the sight of a shiny new Badge. It was in the shape of a green insect wing. "Thanks," I said, putting it with the other two in my Badge Case.

"Also, for helping me get that stolen Munna back, here," Burgh held out a TM. "It's Struggle Bug. It can also lower the Special Attack of the Pokemon that gets attack with it."

"Thanks again," I said, returning all my Pokemon to the Pokeballs. "I'll see you around."

* * *

"...and that's how it went," I finished telling Nikki of the win. We were back in the Pokemon Center, packing up all our stuff before we headed out to Nimbasa City.

"Nicely done," she responded. "Neither of my Pokemon fainted during our battle."

"Well, aren't we Little Miss Humble?" I asked sarcastically. There was a picture of Nikki and her parents on the bed, and I picked it up and looked at it. Nikki had inherited her mother's hair color, and her father's eyes. Nikki was six in the picture.

I handed it to her, and she shoved it into her bag. "The first place we're stopping in Nimbasa is my parent's house," Nikki said as she dumped the last of her clothes into her bag. "We can stay there the entire time we're in the city."

"Free room and board, what more could you want?" I checked my bag. Spare clothes, check. New peanut butter crackers, check. New six pack of root beer, check. Griserious Orb, check. Voi's Pokeball, check. All set to go.

Spiri didn't even need to pack. She just dematerialized her possessions, and then rematerialized them when they were needed.

"Well, let's go," I said. "We have a long walk through the rain." We gave our key back to the nurse on duty, and left the Center, heading north for the gate. The rain had let up a little, but there was still a light drizzle. More people had appeared on the streets.

Then my Xtransceiver started ringing. "It's Bianca," I announced as I answered. Bianca's picture appeared on the screen.

"Hey there!" she shouted rather loudly. "Where are you now?"

"Um...on our way to Nimbasa, we're just reaching the gate now," I replied, as we approached the gate.

"Can you do me a favor?" she asked. "I want to have a battle! Iris trained me some more, and I should be able to protect my own Pokemon now."

"That's great," I told her. "And sure. Where and when?"

"Um...just meet me in the gate to Route 4," she answered. "You said you were almost there."

"All right, see you then." I hung up. "Bianca and I are going to have a battle in a few minutes," I informed the group.

"Lovely," Ivy muttered. "Is she the one with the repugnant Oshawott?"

I nodded, trying to answer him in the least obvious way. "Her Oshawatt probably evolved by now, so that's something we should look out for," I said, making it seem like small talk. Ivy groaned.

"Buck up, man," Bark encouraged. "Perhaps you'll evolve soon as well."

"I wish," he replied, scornfully.

Bianca was waiting for us when we walked into the gate. "Hey Trevor, and Nikki, and Spiri," she greeted, a little too overexcited.

"Hi," I said back.

"You remember your promise on the Xtransceiver, right?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Bianca, it was five minutes ago, I couldn't forget," I answered, resisting the urge to face palm.

She shrugged. "Just making sure you don't have short-term memory or something." She walked over to the guard on duty, and asked him something. "We can battle in the gate as long as we don't break the electric bulletin board."

Bianca pulled out her first Pokeball. "Go Lilly!" She sent out an exact copy of Bark, only female.

"Let's make this interesting," I smiled. "Bark, you're first this time."

He groaned. "I don't hit girls."

"Use Take Down!" Bianca and I shouted at the exact same time. Our Herdiers ran at each other, and jumped into the air. It felt like slow motion as they collided. They both fell smack down to the ground. Fortunatly, Bark was still in the fight. Unfortunatly, Lilly was as well.

"Use Leer!" I shouted, deciding to go back to a classic plan. Bark gave Lilly the uncomfortable stare, lowering her defence.

"Lilly, use Take Down again!" Bianca ordered, and Lilly came crashing into Bark. This time, Bark wasn't able to stay in.

"Damn," he cursed as he limped to the sidelines, unable to battle.

"Ivy, go in there and finish it," I ordered. Snivy walked out, arms folded arcoss his chest, and a snide smile on his face. "Use Leaf Tornado!"

"Use Take Down!"

Lilly rushed at Ivy with the intent to knock him out. But, Ivy simply whipped up a tornado of leaves to right in her path, and shot it at her. Lilly was sent flying into the ceiling.

"Ouch," some random watcher said. "That had to hurt."

Ivy turned to me. "I feel funny. It's like a tingling in my stomach..." He was cut off when a bright white light enveloped him. When the light died down a few seconds later, there was a Servine standing where my Snivy had been

I smiled as wide as I could. "Ivy evolved!" Some of the observing crowd burst into appaulse.

Bianca shrugged as she retrieved her fallen Herider. "Doesn't matter," she said as she sent out her Pansear. "I'll go for the type advantage."

"Ivy, return," I told him. "Aqua, take his place." The two Pokemon switched places, and I could see a slight bit of fustration on Bianca's face.

"Sears, use Leer!"

"Aqua use Water Gun!"

As Sears gave the glare, he was hit in the face by a stream of water, pushing him back a few feet. Despite the super-effective move, Sears endured the hit.

"Use Bite!" I shouted to Aqua, jumped on top of Sears, and began to try to chomp down on the fire monkey.

"Counter with your own Bite!" Bianca ordered, and Sears began biting at Aqua. It seemed like a impass, until they both stopped struggling. They were both knocked out.

"I just healed my guys," I complained as I returned Aqua to his Pokeball. Bark didn't have the energy to fight, but Aqua was knocked out.

"Zen, you're up," I said.

"Shaw, take him out."

I had the type disadvantage, and I could pull Zen out if he didn't make a perverted rema-

"I might look small," Zne said, "But keep in mind _big _things come with small packages."

"Oh kill me now," Ivy cried out, falling flat on his face. Bark, sighed and rolled his eyes. The new guy always took some time getting used to.

Shaw slapped his face, "Why me? I don't want to fight a prev."

"Use Razor Shell!" Bianca shouted, completely oblivious to what had just happened.

"My pleasure," Shaw said, taking his shell in his hand, swinging like a sword at Zen. Zen was out in a single hit.

"Oh no, Zen's knocked out," I said with fake shock. "Whatever will I do? Ivy, use Leaf Tornado."

Shaw was able to withstand it. "Use Razor Shell! Try to weaken it for Munny!" Shaw sliced Ivy with the shell, and got another tornado of leaves in response.

Withdrawing her Dewott, Bianca smirked. "And then there were two," she said, releasing her last Pokemon from its ball. It was none other than Munna. The same one that I had, helped, save.

"Munny, use Psybeam!"

"Use Leaf Tornado, Ivy!"

The attacks missed each other, and hit the Pokemon they were aiming for. Ivy fell backward, while Munny was shaken around, but still floating.

"I'm sorry," Ivy apologized, before he passed out. His voice was more adolescent that it use to be, but the British accent was still strong.

"Congrats, Bianca," I said, holding my hand out to her. She blushed as she shook it.

"I never thought I could actually beat you," Bianca said, still slightly shocked. She giddily returned Munny to her or his Pokeball, and ran out onto Route 4, most likely to find Cheren.

The crowd dispersed as I opened my bag to get some healing supplies. Soon enough, my team was back up to full strength.

"Are you mad at us?" Bark asked, with a hesitant voice.

"What? No, you did you best. Even though we lost, I'm proud of all of you," I reassured them. "And besides, which team of Pokemon is helping me kick Team Plasma's ass?"

I looked around and saw that Nikki wasn't there. "Where's Nikki?" I asked Spiri, who was there.

"She went on ahead," she replied. "Apparently, there's something going on Route 4."

We ran out into the pelting sands of the desert, and saw the crowd gathering around some police cars that were blocking off the entrance to a building that was under construction.

Nikki ran over. "What the hell is happening?" I asked as she reached me.

"Some girl went up to the fifth floor of that building, and is going to jump off and kill herself," Nikki answered, tears forming in her eyes. "Someone went up there to talk her out of it, but I don't know who."

"Yeah, I see the guy," Bianca said, as she peered through a pair of binoculars that, from the impatient look on his face, she had stolen from Cheren. "Wait, is that my brother?"

_-Nimbasa City_

Cyrus stood on the balconey of the penthouse they were staying in. He was watching Route 4, looking for any signs of the approaching Trainers, but at this distance, it was impossible.

"Are you sure they'll be here?" he asked through the open door.

"Yes sir," Saturn replied, from inside. "There is a Gym in the city, so they'll be here sooner or later."

Sighing, Cyrus put out another order. "Kristen, I want all the intel you can get on Team Plasma as possible."

"Yes sir," she acknowledged, and went to her laptop.

Cyrus shut the doors to have some privacy. He looked at the object he held in his hands. A Pokeball necklace. The Pokeball part was made of solid ruby and solid platinum. The chain that made it a necklace was pure 24 karat gold. In essence, it would cost a fortune to buy.

It had belonged to his daughter. He had seen her wear it once, but at that time he hadn't know it was his daughter. He sighed. He had found it floating in the zero G of the Distortion World, and at the time, he planned to sell it to rebuild Team Galactic.

The necklace had been given to her by her boyfriend on her 14th birthday. A week before her death.


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter Nineteen: The Desert Incident_

"Bianca, I didn't know you had a brother," I said, putting my hand above my eyes to block out the sun, trying to get a better view of what was happening.

"Yeah," she replied. "He was born a few minutes before me. So we're like twins, I guess." Bianca stopped and sighed. "A few months later, our parents got a divorce, and my dad won custody of my brother, and my mom won me. We've only seen each other a few times."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I apologized, and turned my attention back to the semi-complete building. As far as I could tell, nothing was happening. Then again, I honestly couldn't from this far away.

Nikki shuffled over, Kip following closely behind. "Have any of you seen where Plank went?"

_-Meanwhile, up on the Building..._

Anthony was on the fifth floor, several yards from the girl. At his distance, he could see that she had brown shoulder length hair, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, and was roughly his age, if not younger.

He followed the footprints in the sand that had blown into the open side of the building, piling up in massive pile in the corners. He slowly approached her, not wanting to scare her. She was sitting with her legs dangling over the edge.

Apparently, Anthony had made some noise, since she looked up and over to him. "Stay right there or I'll jump!" she shouted, and the blonde Trainer stopped in his tracks.

"Okay, chill," Anthony said, rasing his hands to his chest. "Chill out, I'm not here to hurt you, or whatever."

She sniffled, and wiped her nose on her sleeve. "What do you want, then?" She turned her head to him, and he could see her face. Her hazel eyes were red from crying, and it looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep in recent days.

Anthony leaned against a sheetrock wall. "I thought you might just want to talk some."

"About what?"

"I dunno," Anthony shrugged. "Why do you want to jump?"

She scoffed. "My life sucks. There's no point in living anymore." She looked back over the desert. "This way I'll have attention one last time."

Anthony raised his eyebrows. "You said one last time, meaning that there have been other times when the spotlight light was on you?"

"I let that slip out didn't I," she said. "It's nothing."

"Do tell."

"As if you would care."

"I do care," Anthony replied, with a dead serious tone.

"If you need to know," she started in a condesending tone. "I grew up in an orphanage in Lilycove City, in Hoenn. No one really talked me there, no one liked me there." Her eyes began to tear up. "Then one day, on a trip to the nearby Safari Zone, I caught a Pikachu. I loved Zapp."

Anthony had been taking baby steps toward her, and was now standing next to her. He sat and slung his legs over the edge. "What happened?'

She looked over at him, but then back at the ground five stories below them. "I took him out to compete in a contest, and we won. Then we won another. And another. We became famous." She sniffed, and wiped her nose again. "Then we got adopted and brought here. My new parents only wanted me to compete in contest so they could take the prize money."

Anthony shook his head, letting his mind race for the right thing to say. But, before he could say anything, she went on.

"And then some assholes that go around calling themselves Team Plasma stole Zapp, and my "parents" were mad at me for losing the champion Pokemon." She sighed. "They threw me out, and three days later, here I am."

Anthony nodded. "My life hasn't be that great either. My sister was separated from me when we were a few months old, and we didn't even know of each other exsistance until a two years ago. Then I went on a journey in Sinnoh to become the Champion, and what happens?" He pulled out his Badge Case and opened it, revealing all eight of the Badges. "I went to the tournament, and made it to the last of the Elite Four, before I lost."

He stood up, brushing the sand off of him. "That happened three times before I gave up. I thought that I was just another one of those Trainers who couldn't get any better, while everyone else got stronger."

"You shouldn't waste your life right here," he said. "You should move on, get over the past." A smile spread across his face. "However, I think I just found a new goal in my life."

"What would that be?" she asked.

"To kick Team Plasma's ass until they give back a certain stolen Pikachu."

Her eyes lit up. "You would do that? For me? A tota stranger?"

"I would," Anthony answered, dead serious.

The girl stood up and hugged him. "Thanks, I don't even know your name."

"Anthony. You?"

"I'm Lucy," she replied, wiping her eyes a final time. "Thank you, Anthony."

They headed for the exit, when everything came crashing down on them.

_-Five Minutes Earlier..._

"I haven't seen him," I said. "Have you checked his Pokeball?"

Nikki nodded. "I let out both Kip and Plank to get some fresh air, but I checked anyway. He's missing."

"Lovely," Ivy said, as he walked around, trying to get used to the new body. "That Plank chap never did talk much."

"I don't think he ever actually said a word at all," Aqua said, from Bark's back. Zen was walking slowly around in circles, possibly lost in thought. About what, I didn't, nor did I want to know.

I shrugged. "Nikki, he's probably fine," I reassured her. "He probably wandered off to empty his bladder or something like that."

Cheren adjusted his glasses. "I'm not sure that building a tall structure on sand was a good idea," he said. "Sand isn't the best type of terrian to build on."

"I'm sure that the construction workers know what they are doing," Bianca replied, still looking through the binoculars. "I can't see so well through all this sand."

"But still," Cheren said. "That structure doesn't look so strong."

The wind picked up, increasing the speed that the sand flew through the air. It stung as it hit my face. That was the thing about deserts. The sand stung, and you had to cover any exposed areas. But since deserts wer hot, you couldn't use anything too heavy that would make you fry to death.

I suffered through it, while Nikki pulled out a small brown blanket from her bag to protect her from the sands, since she was wearing a tank top and shorts. Other people in the crowd began to use umbrellas and other things to avoid the slight stinging of the sands.

The lowest floor of the building suddenly exploded outward, kicking up a massive cloud of sand. People were slammed against the ground at the force, and I then found myself looking up at the sky, with Nikki on the ground next to me, groaning in pain. She must have took a harder fall than I did.

I sat up just in time to witness the other floors of the building come falling to the ground, sending out another massive wave of dust. Other people began to scream while the wail of sirens could be heard in the distance.

"Cheren, Bianca, are you two okay?" I shouted through the noise.

"We're fine," Bianca answered.

I looked over at Nikki, who was still laying there, clutching her side. "Oh, shit," I muttered as I crawled to her side. Crismon blood stained her red tank top, making it appear is if there was a giant wet spot. A piece of metal was buried in her side.

The sirens were getting louder and louder, until several police cruisers and ambulances arrived on the scene. "Over here!" I shouted, and two paramedics carrying a stretcher ran over. Without a word, they loaded her on the stretcher, and ran back over to an ambluance. After putting her in the back, they started treatment, and drove off, alongside several other ambulances.

Ivy and Bark were running around, leading paramedics to wounded people, while Aqua was helping extingiush the building, that had caught on fire. I just stood there, watching the turmoil, knowing deep down, that this was another attempt to kill me. And other people were wounded from it.

Spiri was several yards away, pondering several things. She was still trying to locate Giratina, but had had no luck whatsoever as of yet. She knew that Giratina went willing with a Trainer, and that was several months ago. Having Giratina could mean that they would want the Griseous Orb, which put Trevor in potential danger. Then something hit her. Perhaps the person that tried to kill him the first time was after the Orb, and when he failed, he tried again, which led to the injury of innocent people. She would have to tell Arceus this theory.

I watched Spiri disappear in a purple flash for whatever reason, then turned my gaze to the fallen building. Several people, civilians, construction workers, and police were digging through the wreakage to rescue the people trapped beneath.

My mind wandered. If I was right, and this was an assassination attempt on me, then it was my fault that Nikki was wounded. It looked like she had lost a lot of blood, so she could even die, and it would still be my fault. This was the reason I was so reluctant to let Nikki come with me at Straiton! I couldn't relive what had happened on Spear Pillar. But at least this time, things were very different.

_-Spear Pillar; Three Months Earlier_

_I stood before Cyrus and the two Legendaries, waiting for everything to play out. Dawn walked up beside me, ready to make a stand with me. _

_"Why are you here?" I asked, not even looking at her. _

_She sighed. "I was wrong, okay? It happens from time to time."_

_"You did say that you wanted nothing to do with me."_

_"That was then, and this is now," she replied. "I was wrong about everything."_

_I scoffed. "Now's not really the time, Dawn."_

_Cyrus smiled. "You two are weak, letting your emotions get in the way. I will soon make a new world, but first I must test the powers of the Legends!" He shouted something to Palkia that I didn't hear, but the dragon fired off a purpleish pink blob of pure spatial energy, right at me._

_I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for impact. I heard the impact, but did not feel it. Cautiously, I opened my eyes, and almost died at what I saw. Dawn was laying on the cold stone in front of me, not moving. I crouched down next to her, and she weakly opened her eyes. _

_"I took that for you," she said, with a weak smile._

_"Why?"_

_She closed her eyes, and weakly reached for her neck. She pulled off her necklace, and put it in my hand. The necklace had a golden chain, and a ruby and and pearl Pokeball. "I was wrong, I told you. I never want to see that necklace again."_

_And like that, she was gone. _

_Purple light engulfed her body, and broke it down into smaller particles. _

_Cyrus was watching from in between the two dragons. He had never seen anything like that before in his life. Watching the girl in her final moments was something that felt wrong to him; she didn't have to die._

_The boy was holding something in his hands, but Cyrus couldn't see what it was, but it must have been important. His eyes fixed to the girl's body, as it disentigrated in purple sparks..._

Cyrus opened his eyes. He was still standing on the balcony of the penthouse in Nimbasa. A slight drizzle had started, presumably the rain from Casteila City had drifted over. He glanced once more at the necklace, and pocketed it, walking back inside the penthouse.

"Any news to report?" he asked to anyone in general, as he headed for the minifridge in the room.

"Team Magma and Aqua are fueding, but nothing serious so far," Kristen replied. "But it seems as if a teenage girl has them at bay, already stopping an Aqua take over at a museum in Slateport City."

"Interesting," Cyrus said, as he took in the info. "It seems that all major organizations are being beaten by teens these days. Rocket, Galactic, and now Aqua and Magma. What is this world coming to?"

* * *

I walked alone in the desert, heading for Nimbasa City. The rescue crews were able to safely remove the two people in the collasped building, mainly because a certain Girdurr was holding up a iron beam that would have crushed the two. Plank was now walking alongside Kip, both looking distracted.

Bark, Ivy, Aqua, and Zen were trying to cheer them up, since they knew what it was like to lose their Trainer. Fortunantly, Nikki wasn't dead like I was, which made things slightly better. She was taken to the hospital in Nimbasa, and her parents had been notifed. So even if she did pull through, they might want to keep her at home so nothing like this would happen to her again.

_Not if, _I told myself. _When. _Rain started to fall, and a song instantly came to mind. It seemed to fit.

_Into each life,_

_Some rain must fall,_

_But too much, too much is falling in mine._

There were several more verses, but I honestly didn't know them. That verse kept replaying in my head.

One word filled my thoughts as the song repeated like a broken record. The word was death.

I had come back from the dead, but I'm pretty sure that Nikki might not be able to. Spiri might not be back from wherever she went in time to save her like she did me.

I sighed. I really wished I was the legal drinking age.

_-Unknown Location_

Nick Quadur stared up at the dragon. "Why are you here?"

"I have come to make a deal, human."

"What kind of deal?"

"If you give up this battle of the Legendaires, and let those that you have go, I'll return to you the one thing you've been after."

Nick looked skeptical. "Really? I doubt you could have the one thing I want. You can't bring someone back from the dead."

"I don't have to. She was never dead in the first place."

"What? You're lying."

"I know exactly who you are looking for. You seek Palkia. He is the key."

"I don't believe you."

"Find Palkia, and take him down, then he will be forced to give her back." And with that, the dragon dissappeared.

Nick was left astounded. This couldn't be true. There was no way she would be alive. But, there was only one way to find out.


	20. Chapter 20

_Chapter Twenty: Revelation_

_**-Distortion World, Three Months Earlier...**_

_I stood at the edge of a cliff, or was it the roof? I had lost my sense of direction in this messed up place. Down in my hands was the one thing I was leaving without. It was a necklace, the one Dawn had gave me before..._

_That was the one thing on my mind. Not the mission at hand. Not saving the world. Not facing Giratina. The necklace._

_It symbolized so many things. Betrayal, heartbreak, anger, love, and pain. And I was about to get rid of it. _

_Taking a deep breath, I reared back, and sent the necklace flying toward the tornado like spiral below me. It was relieving knowing that I was never going to see it again..._

Nimbasa City has its perks. The amusement park, and the Battle Subway, which to Aqua's dismay was not the sandwhich shop. Then there's the Musical Theater, and the Gym.

My mind was still wandering. At one time, Dawn was the other half of me, and now Nikki is the other half of me. My life was like a giant soap opera.

Perhaps I should write a romance book based off my life. I'm sure that several critics would give good reviews to it.

Depsite my best efforts, I couldn't get my mind off of Nikki. I couldn't go through all that pain again.

I put on a fake smile, and turned to my Pokemon, who were still trying to comfort Plank and Kip. Poor Kip looked tramatized. "We're going to the amusement park," I said, mind made up. It could help, at least a little.

"Fuck yeah!" Aqua shouted, throwing his fist into the air, forgetting about his job to console the other Pokemon. "We're going on every single ride in that place!" He ran off ahead of us, and into the park. I shook my head. "Bark, Ivy, Zen, keep an eye on him," I ordered. "I don't want him getting us into any more trouble."

"No problem," Bark replied, as the three of them bolted into the park, running right after Aqua. Kip and Plank were standing, still looking sad. I crouched down and looked them in the eyes.

"She'll be fine, I promise," I said, in the most apologetic tone I had. "I know what it's like to lose someone you love."

Kip sighed and said nothing, kicking a pebble with his paw. Plank didn't say anything either, but that was normal for him.

"Listen, what can you do for her right now?" I asked, taking a more firm tone.

Kip looked up at me, and Plank knocked the pebble to the moon with his steel beam. "Nothing," Kip answered.

"Then why are you moping about? You can't do anything, so why not try to cheer up?"

Plank seemed doubtful, but he shrugged. Kip sighed again. "I guess you're right," he said. "Let's go to the park, but you have to buy me ice cream."

"Not a problem," I said, standing up. Looking back to the entrance gate to the amusement park, I saw a very pissed off Aqua walking over. "What wrong?"

"There was one of those 'You Must Be This Tall To Ride' signs at nearly every ride," he answered angrily, motioning the height requirements with his hands. I'm pretty sure that none of my Pokemon would have been able to ride anything.

"So where are the others?"

Aqua scoffed. "They started playing hide-and-seek. Ivy's winning, since he hid in a tree."

I rolled my eyes, with a real smile for the first time in a while. "Let's get ice cream, shall we?" We headed over to the ice cream stand, and ordered seven double chocolates, one in a cone, and six in bowls.

By that time, my other Pokemon had come running over as I looked for a bench to sit on. I smiled when I noticed a familiar figure sitting on one, just staring at the ground. He had light brown hair, and was wearing a dull green shirt with faded blue jeans.

I gave my Pokemon their bowls, and they began devouring with no mercy. "S'up?" I asked, sitting down next to the sixteen year old on the bench.

He looked up. "Trevor? What in the hell are you doing here?" Trent asked, holding his hand out to me.

I shook his hand. "Just collecting the Gym Badges, nothing much. How are you?"

"Terrible," he said. "I got kicked off the football team."

I shook me head as I took a lick from my ice cream in a cone. "That sucks."

He glared at me. "That was my whole lifestyle! I lost everything, and I can't really afford to stay in a hotel here, so I'm headed back to Nuvema Town to get my old job at the store back."

"I can top that," I said. "I've been shot, Someone tried to kill me with a bomb, I have a perverted Darumaka," I pointed a Zen, who stuck his tounge out at me, "And my friend is in the hospital."

Trent smiled. "Okay, your life really sucks. As if that's something to be proud of. At least you don't have to work in a run down piece of shit place where the only customers are drunks or hookers."

"You can come with us, if you want," I offered. After all, he was my cousin. I wasn't going to let him go back to some boring job in a small town, when he could see the world.

'I don't know," he said. "I don't have any Pokemon of my own."

"Trust me," I replied, biting into the waffle cone and pointing to the six Pokemon with me. They had already finished their ice cream, and were laying around lazily. "I can teach you to catch one."

"Alright," Trent answered, making up his mind. "What the hell? You only live once."

I smirked, remembering how I got shot. I stood up as I took the last bite of my cone, and reached into my pocket and pulling out a wad of cash. "Here." I handed him the money, and then all six Pokeballs. "Take them and get a room for four at the Pokemon Center," I told him. "I'm going to stick around here and look around."

Trent nodded. "Shouldn't be too hard," he said.

"Oh, and if Ivy," I pointed to my Servine, "changes the channel to the Nature channel, and there is a documentary on Snivys and Servines, change the channel as fast as possible."

"You asswipe," Ivy scoffed at me. And in his adolescent British accent, it sounded quite funny.

"Umm...kay, got it," Trent replied, turning to walk away.

"And don't even let the Darumaka touch the remote!" I called after him, hopefully saving him from being scarred for life.

Trent gave the thumbs up over his shoulder, and I walked around the park, looking for the Gym. I smiled. We were up one new team member, and I had gotten my mind off of Nik-...dammit. Never mind.

The crowd had a varity of people, adults, kids, teens, elderly, and Pokemon. I groaned as I saw yet another familiar face. N.

He smiled as he saw me, and casually walked over. "You're looking for Team Plasma, right?" he asked, in his fast paced voice.

"What? Team Plasma's here?" I looked around but fortunatly, I didn't see any grunts, so that was a plus, kinda.

"They ran further into the park, Come with me," N said, walking off. As much as I hate him, I honestly had no other choice, since Trent took my Pokemon back to the Center.

We reached the edge of the park, but still no Team Plasma. "They're not here," N stated.

"No shit," I retorted, folding my arms across my chest and sighing. We were standing next to a ferris wheel, and N was looking up at it.

"We should ride the ferris wheel and see if we can spot them from up there," N suggested.

"Aren't they meant for couples?" I asked. "For the record, I'm not gay."

N shook his head sadly, but ignored me. "I love ferris wheels. The circular motion, the mechanics...They're like collections of elegant formulas."

"Right, that's what I see when I look at giant spinning wheels with boxes attached to them," I replied, sarcastically. "Let's get this over with."

We went inside and got tickets, and I pulled the brim of my cap down so no one could see who I was. When we were sat down in one of the cages, I sighed and looked out the window, watching for Team Plasma as we went up.

"There is one thing that I must tell you," N said, serious tone quite evident.

"Oh, this ought to be good," I muttered, determined to have a very bad time.

"I am the king of Team Plasma."

I instantly froze. This was bad. If what he said was true, then I was stuck about a hundred feet off the ground in a cage that wasn't very spacious at all, with the leader of the organization that I was at war with.

So to put it in terms that most peope can understand: Oh shit.

Without thinking out a plan, I jiggled the door hinge, trying to open it. "You seem to be taking the news pretty hard," N said, watching as I kicked the door. "It's not that bad. All I will accomplish is awaking Reshiram, and heading to the Pokemon League, where I will become the most powerful Champion ever, unlike any other."

"Fucktard!" I shouted in rage as I threw my whole body against the door. Needless to say at the time, I was emotionally unstable, and my mind was only focused on getting out of that small space. I wasn't expecting the door to give out.

I heard screams of onlookers as I fell, plummeting several stories downward. I squeezed my eyes shut, and reached for Voi's Pokeball, to get me out of this mess. But I was too slow, and hit the ground, feeling pain all over my body. Then, I felt nothing...

_**-41 Years Later...**_

I smiled down at my three ten-year-old and one fifteen year-old grandchildren, who were trying to make sense of the story so far. That was one of the perks of being 55, you got to tell you children and grandchildren stories.

"Grandpa, you said that you were up at a hundred feet," Kaylee said, "a fall like that would have killed you."

"Yeah," Micheal joined in. "I thought you said this was a true story. I think you're making it up!"

Jeffery stood up for me. "I don't know, it could have happened. Some guy survived a 10,000 foot fall before."

"I know more proof," Kaylee spat at him. "Grandpa claimed that he met Arceus. Scientist claimed that they had been searching for years, and have no evidence that a Pokemon like Arceus could have ever exsisted. Arceus is a myth."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Do we have to hear your hype all the time?" she asked Kaylee, and as the oldest, Kara was the only one with a Pokemon. A nice Herdier, which she named Fred. Yes, she named it Fred.

Typing a few things into her laptop, Kara looked at me. "You can go on with the story."

I chuckled. "Kara, I honestly don't see why you're recording this. You said this would make a good book, but I don't honestly know whether the publishers would list it as fiction or non-fiction."

"That is if they publish it," Fred muttered, and Kara and I looked over at him. I could see so much of his grandfather in him, and Fred was one hell of a fighter, being the descendant of Bark and Bianca's Stoutland, Lilly.

"If they don't then I know a website where I can post it," Kara said, as she shook the cramps out of her hands. "It might do well there. Now go on."

I raised my eyebrows slightly, noting the Kara seemed to know what Fred had said. Perhaps it had been passed down from me, even though I doubt it was hereditary. I shrugged it off for now. "Kaylee, I will address the topic of Arceus's exsistance later, although no matter how hard you try, I know he exsists."

"Whatever, Grandpa," Kaylee rolled her eyes.

I heard the door open, and looked over to see Dawn entering, carrying several bags of groceries. "Thanks for watching the kids, Dad," she said. At age 35, Dawn was my only daughter, and her mother had died in childbirth, so most of her life, it was just me and her.

"Not a problem. Although, they asked for a story..."

She groaned. "You didn't tell them that story of your 'grand adventure,' did you?"

"Well, yeah."

Dawn rolled her eyes at me. "I'm willing to bet that none of them believe that story, right?"

"Well, Kaylee doesn't, since I said I met Arceus. And Micheal and Jeffery are in the middle. Kara might, since she wants to start her journey soon she might think that hers would be similar," I answered. "And before she starts hers, I want to have a talk with her, to tell her what a journey will be like. After all, her mother didn't go on one."

She shrugged. "How far into the story did you get? I was only gone a few hours."

"Currently, I am recounting the part about Nimbasa." I sighed.

Dawn nodded. "I've only seen some pictures of that place." She laughed. "I always wanted to go there when you told me about it. But, it's long gone."

I nodded sadly. Nimbasa City was bombed in a massive war about a decade ago, and it was burned to the ground. Not much remains; the only thing left standing was the ferris wheel.

I smiled again, and went over to a cabinet. "Would you care to remain for the remainder of the story?" I asked, offering her a cup.

Dawn smiled, and took the cup. "Why not? It's been a while since I've heard it." She poured herself some tea, while I went for my stash of root beer. "The kids won't believe it one bit once they hear the end, though," she said.

"I promise you, it is one hundred percent true," I told her, taking a big gulp of root beer. I pointed at Kara with my free hand. "She has her laptop set to voice record while she types every word I say, so someday soon we'll have two copies of it. That daughter of yours wants to turn it into a script for a movie, a book, and several other things."

"That's Kara for ya," Dawn chuckled. "Always dreaming big." She followed me back into the living room, where the kids sat in a semi-circle around my chair.

I sat down, and looked each one in the eyes. "You mother's gonna let me tell you the rest of the story right now. So, where was I?"


	21. Chapter 21

_Chapter Twenty-One: Revelations II_

_**A/N: This is the last filler chapter before we get back to the action. So please, enjoy and review!**_

I groaned and sat up, putting my hand to my aching head. "What happened? Where am I?" I asked, looking towad a man who appeared to be a doctor.

The doc glanced at me, and then reverted his eyes back to the clipboard in his hands. "You fell from quite a distance, kid," he said. "It's a miracle that you managed to live."

"Yeah, I guess so." I saw myself in a mirror mounted on the wall of the hospital room. I had a bandage wrapped around my head, and there was a small bloodstain on the left side of my forehead. "I'm perfectly fine, though, right?"

The doctor sighed, and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, other than a concussion and some complications, you're fine."

"Complications?"

"Yeah. You were out cold for two whole days." He shrugged. "But even then, we couldn't find anything wrong with you."

I swung my feet over the edge of the bed, and stood up. I staggered a bit, but the doctor helped steady me. "Does that mean I can go?" I didn't really care if I had been out for a few days. I've been through worse before.

Once again, the doc sighed. "You probably shouldn't leave. After all, you took a massive fall, and something could happen. But, since there is nothing wrong with you at the moment, there is nothing I can do but let you leave." He opened the door for me. "If anything happens, you start feeling dizzy or something like that, you high-tail it over here."

I shrugged. "I honestly thought there would be some paperwork or something," I rolled my shoulders. "But I guess not?" I asked, hoping that there wasn't any.

"You're friend is taking care of it now," the doc replied. "He called your mother and she gave us any information that we would need."

"Great," I headed out the door, but stopped. "A couple days back, did you get the injured people from the bombing on Route 4?"

"Yes, we did," he nodded. "Although I heard it was an accident, not a bombing. Why?"

"Is a girl named Nikki Maddison here?"

The doctor raised his eyebrows. "I believe so, but she's not conscious. Her parents are there with her."

"What room?"

"Is she your friend?" the doc asked, looking down at the floor.

"Yes."

"Are you two close?"

"Very."

He sighed. "I see." His voice seemed apologetic. "Then I guess I better tell you of her condiction. She lost a lot of blood, and took a piece of metal in her side. It didn't hit any major blood vessels or anything. Right now, there's about a fifty-fifty chance."

I didn't say anything, but I was lost in thought. "How big was the piece of metal?" I asked, out of morbid curiousity.

Reaching into his white coat, the doc produced a plastic bag holding said metal. "This is the piece. I was taking it down to the lab to analyze it."

I took it from him, and looked at it through the clear plastic. It was steel, and half of it was coated in crimson blood. Ignoring that, I turned it over, and did a double take.

Someone had stratched a message on the back. It was rough, and looked as if it had been done in a hurry. The letters were small, and the person had fit two lines of small text on the metal. I read the message.

_Think of my acts as you will, but this is the closest I've come._

I furrowed my eyebrows, pondering the meaning of the text. Instinctively, I reached for my phone and snapped a picture of the text, and all of a sudden, the words faded away. They were still there on my phone, giving my something to refer back to in the future.

I handed the bag back to the doctor, who had a confused look on his face. "In case Nikki wants to see what hit her when she gets better," I lied, as he pocketed the bag.

"Um...okay," he said. "She's in room 117. Don't stay for more than five minutes, though."

"Thanks," I said, as he walked off toward what I presumed was the lab. I read the numbers on the doors as I headed throughout the hallways, and still hadn't found room 117 when I stumbled aross the reception desk. Trent was there, rummaging through papers and signing some, with his phone pressed to his ear with his shoulder. Bark, Ivy, Kip, and Plank were sitting queitly next to him.

The Pokemon saw me first, and ran over, Bark tackling me, Ivy merely watching as he walked over. Kip seemed slightly despondant, while Plank was silent as usual. Trent looked and, and rolled his eyes. "It's about time," he muttered when he saw me.

"Where's the rest of the team?" I asked Bark, as I stood up and brushed myself off.

"Well, there was a documentary on Darumaka's on TV, so that's where Zen is," Bark replied. "And the person who had the room before us left three cans of beer in the minifridge, so Aqua's out cold in the tub."

"Yes, it is a rather sad sight," Ivy inquired. "You're still going to hold up your end of the bargain, right? We're going to the Royal Magikarp, right?"

"Right...yeah, we will sometime soon," I answerend. "I honestly wasn't expecting that explosion..." I looked away for a few minutes, and my eyes met with the one person I never wanted to see again.

Cyrus.

He was leaning against the wall just outside the door, soda in his hands. Making no change in facial expression as he saw me, Cyrus motioned for me to come outside to him. I replied by flipping him off.

Shrugging, he took another sip of his drink, and reached his free hand into his pocket. My eyes widened as I saw what he pulled out. It was the necklace. The one I had thrown into the Distortion World three months ago.

"Excuse me," I said to Trent and my Pokemon calmly. Trent waved me away while he signed another paper. I walked out the door and over to my public enemy number one.

"Where in the hell did you get that?" I asked Cyrus, starting to lose my cool.

"I found it floating amongst stones in the Torn World," he answered, holding the golden chained necklace out to me. "I presume you want it?"

"Hell no," I spat back, and Cyrus returned the necklace to his pocket. "And why the hell are you here?"

"Honestly, trying to act tough by using profanities isn't very effective," Cyrus said, as he took another glug of his Pepsi.

"I'm not trying to be tough, I'm excessively pissed off right now." I leaned against the wall opposite of Cyrus, and pinched the bridge of my nose. "But, seriously, why are you are?"

He sighed as he tossed his empty can into a nearby trash can. "I'm here to apologize."

"For what?"

He stared at me. "For what I put you through. You know, Team Galactic and all that." I rolled my eyes. "Currently, Team Galactic, or what's left of it, is working against Team Plasma, so if you have any valuble info..."

"Their leader is a guy named N. He has long green hair, wearing tan clothes, and a black cap," I told him. "Why are you working against them?" I asked, out of morbid curiosity again.

Cyrus sighed. "Trying to make amends with myself," he replied, staring off into the distance. "You know, a great love is lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all you think about. Then you can focus on it and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But, if you're patient and you hold still, well maybe, just maybe, it'll come to you."

I stood there, dumbfounded. What he just said pretty much sums up what my life was like during the first few weeks after I lost Dawn. She was all I thought about, and I set out on several quests to find her, seeking out Dialga to go back in time to fix it, then to Giratina to see if he could do something or another. Hell, I had even gone to Arceus, and asked him if he could help. And the more I looked, the farther away the answer got.

Cyrus thought about his wife, and how he could remember her smile, her eyes, everything. He was dead set on finding Dialga or Celebii and go back in time to fix his problems, be there as his daughter grew up. But at that moment, he realized that doing so could jepordize the future, and what his former enemy, the boy who took out Team Galactic, had accomplished.

"That's both of our problems," Cyrus said, closing his eyes and folding his hands behind his back. "We're both trying to force it, when we should let it come naturally."

"Yeah, I agree with that," I muttered. Something change. Right there, outside of Nimbasa City's hospital, two enemys became friends. But I'm using that term loosely. It was more like they hated each other less.

"I guess I should let them go," Cyrus said, catching me off guard. "I had a wife, and we got separated. That made me heartbroken. Then fourteen years later, I learned the she had had our child, and raised her without me." He opened his eyes, letting the memories vanish.

"I never knew you had a daughter," I said, not thinking of anything better to say.

He smiled. "You knew her. You knew her better than I ever will." Cyrus glanced down at his pocket, where the golden chain of the necklace could be seen. "After all, you gave that to her." Something beeped on his wrist. "I have to go now."

As he left, I stood there, taking it all in. It seemed to be too much, and my mind couldn't handle it all. It could handle the error he had made. "I didn't get it for her," I muttered to myself, willing the memories away.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I looked at the person the hand was connected to. It was a woman, yellow hair with a yellow shirt and tight black pants. There was a pair of headphones around her neck. "You seem troubled," she said.

"Just a rough week," I told her. "My life seems to be falling apart."

She sat on a bench, and motioned for me to do the same. I sat, resting my elbows on my thighs. "Tell me about it," the woman said. "I might be able to help."

I sighed. "Overall, it's a very long story."

"How long?" the woman asked. "I have some time before my next photo shoot."

"The first half is a long, 52 chapter story. But more recently, My girlfriend is in the hospital, and she might live, she might not," I started, and she put her arm around me. "Then, I just found out that my ex-girlfriend was the daughter of a leader of an organization that was aiming at destroying the world."

"Okay, that does sound bad," the woman admitted, but before I could continue, a couple walked out of the hospital, the man with his arm tightly around a woman while she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. I recognized them instantly from Nikki's picture. They were her parents.

"Mr. and Mrs Maddison," the yellow woman greeted as she stood up and walked over to them. "Is something wrong? Is Nikki okay?"

Okay, so now this random stranger knew Nikki. At first, my mind was overloading, trying to take in a ton of info at a time. Then, I remembered that Nimbasa was where Nikki was from, so she would have several friends around here.

"She might live, she might not," Mrs. Maddison sobbed, and the yellow woman turned and looked at me, making a connection. I shrugged.

The three walked off, the woman and Mr. Maddison trying their best to comfort Mrs. Maddison, and I noticed Kip and Plank trailing after them slowly. Kip looked up at him, and tried a fake smile, while Plank ignored me all together.

Bark and Ivy wandered out and over to me. "You look tired," Ivy noted. "Perhaps you should get some sleep."

"I was out for two whole days," I reminded him. "But, yeah, some sleep might help." Bark led me back to our room, where I ignored whatever Zen watching, and flopped down on the first bed I saw, and fell asleep.

_Nikki was surrounded by gray. Everything around her was gray. Gray trees, gray grass, gray rocks, gray...everything. _

_But that was not what concerned her. What did concern her was the large dragon staring at her. Judging from the fact that it wasn't black like the man in her mind back in Casteila, Nikki deduced that if that man was truely a Legendary, this wasn't him._

_"I believe that you will someday have something I desire," the dragon stated, its gray body matching the dull background._

_"And what might that be?" Nikki asked. She honestly didn't have a clue what it was talking about._

_"You'll find out in due time," the dragon flew off, leaving her alone in the grayness of her unconscious mind..._


	22. Chapter 22

_Chapter Twenty-Two: Back on the Road_

_**Somewhere in Sinnoh...**_

Palkia clutched his hand to his head, feeling a sudden wave of emotions flood over him. Love. Peace. Hate. Pain. Betrayal. They weren't his emotions.

He saw every memory the human soul in his body had lived through. It was a sad story. The girl had fallen in love with one boy, and travelled around with him for a while, and then they seemed to grow apart. She fell for another boy, but in the final moments of her life, she returned to the first boy.

A sharp pain throbbed in his head, and he felt as if his mind was being pushed out of his brain. With a roar of agony, he fell to the ground, his vison going white. It soon returned to him, but he couldn't move. He could only watch as his body was moved by some unknown force.

For one of the first times in his long life, Palkia suddenly felt sick. He watched as his body moved around, walking, touching trees and grass, all being controlled by...His thoughts froze in shock. Had the human soul managed to gain control of his body?

She glanced down at her hands, watching as they changed from dragon claws into her human hands at will. Glancing down into a puddle of water on the ground nearby, she saw that she looked exactly like she did before the incident.

A smile spread across the humans lips. She had cheated death, by pushing all her thoughts, hopes, dreams, memories and emotions into Palkia's head, slowly breaking him down mentally. Then she seemed to be free to take his body.

She was back in the pyshical realm, and she had a few things to get settled. With a running jump, she lept off a very high cliff, freefalling for a few hundred feet, before transforming herself back into Palkia, and flew off...

_**Meanwhile, in Nimbasa City...**_

There's nothing like taking a walk around a city to help clear your head. My Pokemon were resting inside their Pokeballs in case I decided that I might challenge the Gym Leader later today. In fact, a battle would also be a good way to help focus on other things.

Trent was walking a few feet behind me, also along for the ride. "I don't mean to pester you at a bad time," he said. "But do you think you could help me catch a Pokemon now?"

I considered it. I had nothing better to do at the moment. "Alright," I replied. "Do you want to go to Route 4, Route 5, or Route...whatever is that way?" I pointed at a gate just past the Pokemon Musical Theatre.

"Um...Route 4," he answered after a minute. "I've been there a few times, and I know what Pokemon are there. I want one of those aligator Pokemon."

"Sandile?" I asked, and he nodded. "Sure, but those are crocodile Pokemon."

"What's the difference?" Trent asked, shrugging as we headed for the gate to the desert. "And what even are aligators and crocodiles?"

"To hell if I know," I replied. "I think they were made up creatures for something years back."

We walked out into the sandstorm, and I tossed Trent on of my Pokemon. "You'll need this," I reached into my bag, bypassing Voi's Pokeball and Giratina's orb, and pulled out three empty miniaturized Pokeballs. "And these."

"Which Pokemon is this?" he asked, as he took the balls.

"Not sure," I answered. "You'll find out when you get there. It could be Bark, Ivy, or Aqua. I marked Zen's ball so I don't accidently send out the perv."

"How do you even know he's a pervert?" Trent asked. "He can't make perverted jokes, at least ones we can understand."

"Trust me, I know."

"Um...okay," Trent said, looking around the desert, hoping to see his target Pokemon. After a minute of silence, he spoke up again. "What's with that rock in you bag?"

"What?"

"When you were out cold yesterday, I went through your bag, hijacking one of your root beers," Trent clarified. "And I saw that spiky rock."

I pulled out the Griserous Orb, holding it in both hands. "You mean this?"

"Yep, that rock."

I smiled at his name for it. "This is no mere rock," I explained. "This is the orb of Giratina, entrusted to me by...Arceus...for safe protection."

Instantly, Trent's eyes widened. "You've met Arceus?" When?"

I shrugged. "About two months ago, after I became the Sinnoh Champ."

A smile spread across his face. "You think you could get him to meet with me?"

"I could, I think," I answered. "Maybe not."

"If you can, could I borrow that MasterBall you have?"

I groaned. "You're not going to catch Arceus," I said. "He can escape MasterBalls." A Sandile wandered slowly across the road in front of us. "But you can catch that."

Trent tossed the Pokeball, revealing it to contain Ivy. "This should be easy," I commented. "Just knock it out with Leaf Tornado. Then use a Pokeball."

"Okay, then," Trent agreed. "Use Leaf Tornado!"

Ivy sighed. "I honestly don't know why I'm about to take orders from this giant simpleton," he said. "But you better let me get something really expensive at the Royal Magikarp."

I nodded. Ivy whipped up a twister of green leaves, and sent it straight at the Sandile. The croc flipped over, cursing and struggling. "Now the Pokeball," I ordered.

"I'm not stupid, bro," Trent said, as he threw an empty Pokeball at the Sandile. It engulfed the little brown Pokemon, and shook once. Then twice. Then a third time. And click.

Trent threw his fist up in triumph. "I caught a Sandile! I'll name it Sandy!"

"Of course," I muttered, face-palming. Trent handed me Ivy's Pokeball. "Keep he other empty ones," I said.

"Thanks!" He pocketed them, retrieved his Sandile, and we started walking back to Nimbasa. "After I heal Sandy, I'll use her to catch another Pokemon, and then another, and then I'll challenge the Gym."

"Gyms are harder than you would think," I told him. "You'll have to undergo some heavy training. And how do you know it's a she?"

"Um...I studied Sandiles in school," he replied. "I know the differences. And besides, it was on its back for a little while, and you could easily tell it was a she by the lack of a-"

"I get it," I said, cutting him off just in time.

"Just be glad Zen isn't here," Ivy interjected, rubbing his temples.

"Okay," I told Trent. "Since you're now in the group, there are a few things you need to know. One; Don't try to hit on Spiri, whom you are yet to meet. Two; Don't try to hit on Nikki, as she is already taken. Three; You may fall into dangerous situations, such as an assassination attempt, gunfire, and a battle that could end the world."

"You just can't have a normal journey, can you?" Trent asked shaking his head. "You're joking about all of that, right?"

I shook my head.

"What? You mean I can't hit on girls?"

I rolled my eyes. "I never said you couldn't," I explained. "I just said there were two that you couldn't hit on."

"Oh. I might accidently hit on them, because I'm just so good at flirting, I sometimes do it on accident."

In all honesty, I was surprised that he wasn't fazed when I said that people were trying to assassinate me. I guess he just didn't think I was serious at all.

We walked into the city, and Trent ran off toward the Pokemon Center. My phone vibrated in my pocket. Of course, it was my stupid sister, requesting a video chat.

"Hi," I greeted with fake cheer as I answered. Ashlyn smiled and waved. She was on a beach, and KFC had evolved apparently. It was playing around with a small Ghost-Type Pokemon, one I knew as Sableye.

"S'up brother?" Ashlyn said, smiling as she held up her second Hoenn Badge. "I just got this today."

I reached into my pocket, and pulled out my Badge Case, opening it to the Unova section. "I'm about to go for my fourth," I said, holding it up to the camera so she could see.

"Now for the reason I called," Ashlyn reached off screen, and then held up a Pokeball. "I happen to have a spare Sableye, if you want it."

I thought about it. I really didn't need one, so maybe I could give it to Nikki. "Sure, I'll take it," I answered.

"Okay, cool," Ashlyn said. "I'll have sent to your PC by the end of the day."

"Thanks, and is that all you called for, or is there more?"

She looked around. "Something seems wrong," Ashlyn told me. "It just seems like something big is about to happen."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's just-" she stopped talking, staring at something off the screen. Her eyes lit up with fear.

"Ashlyn?"

"I have to go," she said. It seemed forced, and she turned the camera as she ended the video chat. There was a flash of silver, and the screen returned to normal. Thousands of possibilites were swimming through my mind. What the fuck had happened?

I started walking in circles around the city, trying to think this out, but nothing was coming together.

I saw Bianca standing outside the Musical Theater, staring at the door. "Hi," I said, awkwardly.

"Oh, hey Trevor!" Bianca greeted. "I've just been wandering around the city trying to figure out what I want to be, what I want to strive for." She guestured to the Theater in fron of her. "I'm going to check this place out. You want to come?"

"Why not?" I said, following her into the building. There were tons of people gathered around, chatting and several Pokemon were practicing dance moves. There was a stair case that led up to a higher level in the right corner of the room, and a reception desk in the main room. All in all, it reminded me of the Contest Hall in Hearthome City.

"This place is huge!" Bianca gasped, taking in the majestic size of the interior. A middle-aged man walked over, and inspected the two of us.

"You two seem to be...weathered Trainers," he said. "In case you're wondering, I am the manager of this Theater."

"That's cool," I said, not really caring.

"It's a nice place you have here," Bianca complimented, still taking in all the sights of the building.

"It is magnificent, isn't it?" he asked, smiling as he stared around the room. "It attracts the rich, famous, wealthy, and the occasional Trainer." The manager furrowed his brow. "How would you two like to dress-up your Pokemon? That way if you ever came to participate in a Musical, you would have some idea of what you're doing?"

"That sounds like fun!" Bianca exclaimed, not really noticing that the manager probably had just called us stupid.

Not waiting for my answer, the manager walked over to the reception desk, said something to the clerk, who looked over at us and laughed. She reached under the desk and pulled out two boxes, one pink, one black. The manager took them, and walked over to us.

"Here," he said, thrusting the pink box to Bianca, and the black one to me. "These are your Prop Cases. You can store items to dress-up your Pokemon with these."

I rummaged through my box, seeing ribbons, bows, hats, ties, and other props. Then I looked down at Ivy, who had remained silent since the desert, with a mischievious smile.

He looked up at me. "What are you...oh shit."

Seven minutes later, Ivy looked at himself in a mirror. "You know, it's not all that bad," he mused. He had a top hat, black bow tie, and was twirling a cane around. "I feel civilized."

The manager was looking over at Bianca's Dewott, Shaw, which was decked out in a pirate costume. He glanced over at Ivy, and smiled. "I like your style kid," he said. "They way you made that animal look so refined...it's amazing."

"Animal?" Ivy and I asked at the same time.

"Surely, you didn't expect me to believe that your Pokemon is a civilized being," the manager said. "It must have fought in many battles, thus making it quite the barbarian."

"Oh, so this is only a place for the dignified?" I asked looking around. All the other Pokemon looked as if they had had the hell pampered out of them.

"Such an immature person as you would not respect the beauty of-"

I walked out, Ivy following closely behind. Hell, I dumped the Prop Case out all over the floor as I left, just to piss him off.

"Don't let him get to your head," I told Ivy. "You could've whooped every one of those Pokemon's asses eight times over."

"I know," he replied. "I really didn't care about what he said. I don't really listen to assholes."

"Neither do I," I agreed, and Bianca stormed out.

"What the hell was that about?" she yelled right at me. "I went in there to enjoy myself, and you just made a fool out of me!"

"How?" I asked. Ivy was beaming, glad that he got a front row seat.

"We walked in together, so people might have thought we were a couple, and then you storm out like a child!"

I was about to stand up for my Pokemon, when...

"There you are, Bianca!" Bianca's face went pale as she turned to the newcomer.

"D-d-daddy? What are you doing here?"

He folded his arms. "I'm here to take you back home, where you belong."

Bianca pouted, and turned away from him. "I'm not going home. I want to continue my journey, and you can't stop me."

"Bianca, dear," her dad said. "Haven't you come far enough? Nimbasa City is a long way from home."

"So?" Bianca spat back at her father, neither of them noticing the crowd forming. "I've seen sights that I've never seen before, met people I would have never met, and I've had the time of my life at it."

"Listen, Bianca, I came all the way out here to get you, and my decision is final!"

"You can't make me go back!" she shouted, taking a step back.

Her father was beet red, getting ready to explode. "Don't you talk back to me like that! You're coming home with me, right now! For your own good!"

Bianca eyes were watering, and she was on the verge of crying. She shook her head. "I hate you!"

And now, we have a fifty megaton explosion.

"You will respect you father's decisions, Bianca!" he shouted, seething. "And you will show me some respect! Now you're gonna get your sorry ass back home, and release those damn Pokemon of yours! They're nothing but trouble!"

The crowd parted in a section, while the some woman that had went with Nikki's parents walked through and up to them. "I don't mean to butt into a personal conversation," she said.

Ivy and I looked arcoss the crowd. "Yeah, it wasn't all the personal," Ivy commented, and I crouched down to high-five him.

"You should let her follow her dreams," the woman continued. "Let her seek out what she wants to do with her life."

Bianca's dad seemed to grow slightly impatient as this point. "But can't she do that at home? Where it's safe, and she doesn't have to worry about getting injured?"

"She could," the yellow woman agreed, "but she wouldn't have a hands on experience that can only come from an adventure."

"If it helps," I said taking a step toward Bianca's dad, "my mother wasn't exactly all for my first journey when I was thirteen. She was just like you, wanting me to come home and just stay around in a small town."

Bianca looked over at me, slightly confused at what I was saying.

"And yeah, the journey was rough, and I got hurt a few times, both physically and mentally, but I toughed it out, and learned things about myself that I never knew." I could see the look on the woman's face was an approving one, and the look on Bianca's dad's face was one where he realized that he was probably fighting a losing battle.

"My mom had told me that I was never destined for greatness if I set out on the open road," I said, as I reached into my bag, digging into my Badge Case, going for one badge in particular. I pulled it out and tossed it to him. "But I learned that it's not where you end up that makes a person great, but its the journey that they take to get there."

Catching my Sinnoh Championship Badge, he looked down at it with a mildly amused face, probably just slightly angered, not enough to have a look of pure shock.

"What he said is true," the woman said, giving me a thumbs up. "I'm sure that you were once like her, with a taste for adventure."

Knowing that he had been beat, he looked up, and tossed my Badge back. "It's just after what had happened with her mother and her first husband, I just didn't want her to go through something similar." He walked over to Bianca. "I'm sorry about all of that, and trying to force you decisions. These two are right," he said, guesturing to me and the woman.

"So, I can keep going?" Bianca asked, a tear streaking down her cheek.

"Yes, but be sure to write, and call, and all that," her dad said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I love you, Bianca, and I hope you...just do what you want, and discover what you want to do with your life, and your mother and I will fully support you."

Bianca wrapped her arms around her dad, and her dad returned the hug. The crowd went "aww!" I rolled my eyes, but with a smile.

_Wow, _Voi interrupted my thoughts. _That was quite the performance, Dr. Phil._

_Hey, long time, no annoy, _I thought back.

_Anyway, jerkwad, I did some researching on this whole Gar-Duno thingy, and it turns out that there have been cases, thousands of years ago, where the human soul gained control of the Pokemon that had absorbed it._

_Wait, what are you trying to say?_

_That it is possible that Dawn could've taken complete control of Palkia. The process involves a breaking the Pokemon down mentally, usually by cramming thoughts, memories, feelings, and stuff like that into its thoughts, and the Pokemon could possible become emotionally unstable, and that's when the human soul should strike._

_Holy shit..._

I stood there in utter shock as the crowd erupted into applause for Bianca, and I had to think above the noise. It seemed very unrealistic, but yet, it was happening.

"Elesa!" a voice cried, and a familiar voice at that. I saw Mr. Maddison pushing his way through the crowd over to the yellow woman, whose name was apparently Elesa.

Elesa looked over at Mr. Maddison. "What's up?"

"Nikki's awake, and they say that she seems to be recovering," he replied, panting. "What happened over here?" he asked, looking at the crowd.

"Just helping another person get ready for the first day of their new life," she responded. "Let's go see Nikki shall we?" They walked off toward the hospital.

"Ivy, let's follow them," I said. My Servine waltzed over, still dressed in the stuff from the Musical. I shook my head, but with a smile.

"What am I? Chopped liver?" Spiri asked, walked over through the dispersing crowd.

"Where the hell have you been for the past few days?"

She shrugged. "I wanted to talk to Arceus about a theory I had about Giratina and the people trying to kill you."

"Let's hear it then," I said, walking toward the hospital.

She cleared her throat. "I think that the people who want you dead have Giratina, and they want to kill you over the orb."

"That's a somewhat reasonable theory," I agreed, as my phone vibrated again. I had a text from my sister.

I opened it and read it, instantly freezing up. "Um...Spiri?"

"Yep?"

"Can you tell Nikki that I had to leave Unova for a day or two, and that I'll be back for a surprise dinner with her parents?"

"Um...sure. Why?"

I fake smiled. "My sister needs some training help, and since I owe her for a Pokemon, I kinda have no choice."

"Oh...alright," Spiri replied, not buying any of it.

I stood there and watched as the last of the crowd went back to their business. I cast the text messege one last glance.

_If you ever want to see you sister alive again, then come to Slateport City in Hoenn, and come alone. We will not hesistate to kill her. And you know what to bring. You know what we want._


	23. Chapter 23

_Chapter Twenty-Three: The Day the Earth Gets Screwed Over_

Nikki sat up in her hospital bed, groaning at the slight pain in her side. She didn't know how long it had been since she was first hit by the piece of metal.

Her room was empty, save for one individual, Spiri. "Where's Trevor?" Nikki asked the pink haired girl.

"He went to Hoenn, to help his sister," Spiri replied, rubbing her temples as if she was under a lot of stress.

That's when Nikki noticed the pink aura coverin her room. "What is that?" She pointed to the pink glowing waves of light surrounding them.

"It's a temporary time block," was the reply. Spiri sighed as she continued. "It'll take Dialga or Celebii to permenantly stop time, but I can hold it for a few minutes. Long enough to explain what's going down in Slateport City."

**Slateport City, Hoenn**

I walked through the city, looking for whoever had my sister. In all honesty, I was expecting them to make themselves known.

But something was off. For a port city, the streets were awfully empty. Not a single person could be seen in the entireity of Slateport.

"How nice of you to join us," a voice said. The voice belonged to a fat man, and next to him was a younger man, probably late teens, holding my sister by the arm. Ashlyn had been gagged, and had her hands tied behind her back.

"You know what we want," the younger man said. "Once we have it, we'll give you your baby sister back."

I sighed. There was really no other option now. I reached into my bag and withdrew the Griserious Orb, throwing it to them.

"Okay, now the other half," the fat man ordered, folding his arms across his chest.

"What other half?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Don't play dumb with us," the younger man said. "We know that you have the Legendary with you."

Okay, this had gone to shit faster than I had hoped.

"Don't give them what they want!" another voice shouted, the owner running up behind my. Cyrus was panting when he got there, and looked as if he was about to fall down.

I stared at him. "Why the hell are you here?" I asked, completely confused.

"It's a long story," he answered in between breaths. "But don't give them whatever it is they want."

I smiled. "Trust me, I had no intention of doing so."

The fat man's smile faded. "If you don't," he pulled a 9mm out of his pocket, and aimed it at Ashlyn's head, causing her to crumple to the ground in pure fear. "I will not hesistate to kill her."

I was shot with a 9mm bullet on the bridge leading into Casteila. I now knew who shot me. "I've cheated death," I said, completely sincere. "I'm sure I can do the same for her."

Fatass's smile returned. "So be it."

Before he could pull the trigger, a large purple blob fell from the sky, shaking the ground, breaking the concrete beneath us into oblivion. Palkia stood, his eyes glowing purple, and fired a spatial sphere out of the pearl on his shoulder, striking the fat man. He went rolling several feet, before coming to a stop, knocked out, if not dead.

The young man holding my sister lost his grip on her, allowing Ashlyn to run over to me, since they hadn't tied up her legs. I pulled the gag from her mouth, letting it fall to the ground as I untied her hands. She was sobbing her eyes out, and wrapped her arms around me as soon as she could.

"Is it over?" she asked through her tears.

"Yes, and we're going home." I looked over Ashlyn's shoulder, and saw a teenage girl materialize through purple sparks. I looked her in her mesmerizing blue eyes, and we shared a smile. Dawn put her hands on her hips, taking in the scene.

"It's far from over!" The younger man shouted, rage filling his voice. "I will not let you get away from me so easily!" He pulled a Masterball out of his pocket, and slammed it into the ground, releasing the Pokemon concealed inside.

It was a large, green flying snake Pokemon, unmistakebly Rayquaza. "I will take your Legendary, and soon I, Elroy Eustis will be the greatest Legendary Hunter ever!" He was fueled by his anger, acting way out of character for him.

"I got this," Dawn said, using her new spatial powers to conjure a sphere of purple spatial energy.

"No," I told her, breaking away from Ashlyn, and walking over to Dawn. "Get Ashlyn and yourself back to Twinleaf town for now," I ordered. "I'm taking a stand."

Dawn looked me in the eyes, as we had done mere seconds eariler. She looked as if she was about to say something, when she leaned and and kissed me on the lips. I returned the kiss, and we stayed like that for what seemed like forever, but in reality, it was only about four seconds.

"Promise me," Dawn said," That once this is all over, you'll come back alive."

For the third time, I stared her straight in the eyes. "I promise, no matter what."

She never took her eyes off of me as she opened a spatial portal behind her, and grabbed a stunned Ashlyn's arm, taking her with her. Once they were through, the portal collasped on itself, leaving nothing but the thin air behind it.

Cyrus had seen the whole thing, and closed his eyes calmly, trying to take in the fact that his daughter wasn't dead, and was now practically a deity. I gave him a warm smile, before two more people made their appearance in Slateport.

Nikki stood still completely in awe as she looked up at Rayquaza, who was levitating a about fifty feet, staring everyone down. Spiri gasped in shock as she saw the giant green dragon. "So they have Giratina and Rayquaza..." she muttered to herself.

"I expected more from a Legendary such as youself, Mespirit," I said, staring straight at her. "You never did figure it out."

Spiri furrowed her brows, trying to comprehend what I had said. "Figured what out?"

I smiled as I reached down into my bag. "You were positive that the people that were out to kill me were the ones that had Giratina." I pulled Voi's Pokeball out, and tossed it up and down a few times in my hand. "But you were really closer than you ever knew."

Her eyes widened as I pressed the button on Voi's Pokeball, revealing Voi for the first time in a while. He was excessively tall, gray body with shadow wings and a golden mouth plate. He had six gray legs, all in close proximity to each other. Yes, Voi was none other than Giratina.

"It's asswhooping time!" Giratina shouted, spreading his wings out as far as they could reached and leaning down into an ear piercing roar. His body was covered in a dark purple aura as he changed into Origin Form due to his proximity to the Griserous Orb, which was still laying on the ground.

"Draco Meteor!" Elroy and I shouted at the same time. The sky turned a deep violet as as several flaming blue meteors fell from the heavens, aimed at each dragon.

"Wrap around its body and hold it down!" Elroy ordered Rayquaza, who wasted no time in constricting Giratina in its wrap.

"Shadow Force!" I commanded, and Giratina vanished on the spot. Rayquaza looked around, trying to locate the other dragon. With a flash of shadow, Giratina reappeared behind the giant green dragon, and rammed into it.

Rayquaza smashed into the ground, but instantly flew back up into the air, ready to fight to the death.

"Stop fighting!" A teenage boy roughly my age ran in between the dragons. He was decked in completely black clothing, raven black hair, and pale white skin. "You two shouldn't be fighting each other," he said.

I knew exactly who it was. The teen was Nick Quadur, the one responsible for the necklace that had caused so much trouble for me. He was the one who had given it to Dawn on her fourteenth birthday. That was about a week after she and I had broken up.

"Then who should we be fighting?" I asked, trying to hold back all the hate that I had for him.

"Myla Gethis," Nick replied, pointing to a girl as she stepped out of the shadows. She was dressed exactly like Nick, in complete black, including black hair. "She's the reason we're all here."

Myla smiled. "He's right. All of this was an elaborate setup to get him here," she said, pointing a Nick. "I believe that we were due for a battle."

"Yeah, but what were we thinking? Nick asked, meeting Myla's gaze. "A battle that would bring hell to the world? What is the point in that?"

"Power," Myla answered simply. "We were both after power. I still am, although you may have weakened."

Nick threw his hands up. "But where is the point in hold power if you just destroyed the world?" He sighed, taking a dead serious face. "If you insist that you must hold this power that you desire, then you'll have to do it over my dead body."

I put on a brave face, and stepped forward. "Over my dead body as well." Giratina floated forward, nodded in agreement with me.

Elroy stood silent, Rayquaza levitating quietly. "We'll join this club, but only if I get first pick of her Pokemon when we win."

"Too bad you won't win," Myla smirked, tossing three Pokeballs up, and releasing the Pokemon inside of them. As I had expected they were all three Legendaries. Mewtwo, Groudon, and Dialga stood in front of us, prepared to strike at a moment's notice. Each one seemed to have a faint white aura around them.

Nick tossed his only Pokeball, revealing the Pokemon to be Darkrai, only something was different. Darkrai had a thick, pitch black aura around him, while the white plume on his head was now deep gray. His blue eyes were now blood red. "This is my ace," Nick said, guestering to Darkrai, "He is possibly as strong as all three of your Pokemon combined.

"I doubt that highly," Myla replied, smirking again.

"Listen," I told Elroy and Nick. "if we want to win, then we'll have to work together." I motioned to Giratina. "He can get behind them with Shadow Force, while Rayquaza can do hit and runs while they're confused. Darkrai looks as if he can be hitting hard at the front."

"Unlike her Pokemon," Nick explained," Darkrai has absorbed three human souls, and the I got him turned into a Shadow Pokemon thanks to Cipher. He could mop the floor with all three of them." To prove his point, Darkrai then shot a massive blob of shadows right at Mewtwo, who threw up a pyschic barrier.

The shadowly blob tore right through it, smashing into Mewtwo, and sending it fly back, taking out a boat dock. Myla was stumped and in complete shock.

"You fools!" said yet another newcomer. This time, it was an old man, dressed in white robes, holding a cane with golden arcs on the top, just like the ones on Arceus. So this was Arceus in a human form, I assumed.

"First off," Arceus said, "It is not even possible for a Pokemon to take in more than one human soul. how did you get three?"

"A loophole," Nick answered. He scratched the back os his neck and sighed. "A woman pregnant with twins."

I shot him a 'WTF' look. "You're one cold hearted motherfucker."

Arceus raised his eyebrows. "I should've thought of that," he said. "That's smart. Even so, three souls and the turning him into a Shadow Pokemon? What were you thinking? He won't obey you at all!"

Nick's facial expression changed instantly. "Darkrai, use Shadow Blast!" Darkrai turned and stared at him, before releasing a shock wave of pure dark energy, that sent all of us, Giratina, Rayquaza, Elroy, me, and Nick to the ground several feet behind where we had been standing.

"I do not take orders from you any more, pathetic human," Darkrai told him. "When you were seeking power, it was only natural for me to join you to gain the power that I needed. And now I can dispose of you."

"You leave me no choice Darkrai," Arceus said, grimly. He raised his staff, the golden cross on them glowing brightly. Groudon and Dialga's eyes instantly changed to a bright golden glow. Arceus had full control of them.

I glanced back at Nikki who had been thrown to the ground in the shock wave, and Cyrus was attending to her wound. Perhaps he had changed.

Nikki looked up at me, and we locked eyes. _I love you, _I mouthed, just in case I didn't come out of this alive.

_I love you too,_ she mouthed back, clutching her side. The bleeding had started again, and if she didn't get out of here fast, she could die. "Get her outta here," I told Cyrus, but Nikki shook her head.

"I'm staying to the end if you are," she said. I sighed, and nodded. I honestly didn't want a repeat of what had happened last time with Dawn, up on Spear Pillar, since I hd been lost emotionally for an entire month.

Arceus still had his staff raised, the golden glow glowing brighter by the second. He finally issued a command. "Soul Discharge!"

Groudon and Dialga reared back, glowing bright white. It covered my eyes, protecting them from becoming blind. I felt like what was pure energy passing over me at high speeds, and cracked my fingers to get a look.

Dialga and Groudon lay on the ground, unmoving. Arceus's staff had a huge ball of...white energy above it, and he fired it off, straight at Darkrai, who remained unmoving.

"What the fuck?" I asked as I stood up wearily.

Casting me a glance, Arceus explained. "I took the souls from Groudon and Dialga, both their own and the human they absorbed, and used them to beat Darkrai."

"You'll have to better than that, old man," Darkrai said, having completely ignored the blast, standing uninjured.

Impossible!" Arceus shouted, raising his staff to do something else, but Darkrai hit him square in the chest with a blast of dark energy

"Oh shit, we need a plan," I said, mind racing for anything that could work. "Giratina, didn't you say that you had a failsafe plan in case everything went to hell?"

"I do," he answered, and theoretically, it should work in this situation. Grab the orb." I went over to the Griserious Orb, and picked it up. "Now keep that with you." I stashed it in my bag. "And hop on." I clambered up Giratina's back, and took hold of his horns on his head.

Giratina fired a weak Shadow Ball into Darkrai, who was about to fry Elroy with shadow energy. "Hey fucktard," Giratina called to Darkrai, "Follow me!" He opened a portal to the Distortion World, and we flew through.

I glanced back. "He's after us!" I shouted upon seeing the murderous Darkrai after us. "That's part of the plan, right?"

"Unfortunatly, yes," Giratina answered. "Hold on tight," he ordered, before going into a straight forward dive bomb right toward the center of the swirling tornado thing far below.

I felt my stomach lurch as we fell. Risking a glance back, I saw that Darkrai was falling farther behind. "We're losing him."

_That should buy us some time, _he told me, through our old method of communication so I could hear him over the rippling winds.

_Tell me what the plan is. I need to know._

_I put this failsafe in here in case I could trap both Dialga and Palkia in here at the same time. Basically, the failsafe destroys the Distortion World, and everything in it, replacing it as it destroys. So in theory, if Darkrai were to be in here when that happened, then he would be history, no matter how strong he is._

_What about us?_

He was silent for a moment before answering. _There'll be a short window for us to get back to that portal once we activate the failsafe._

_How short?_

_Too short._

Up ahead, I saw a small patch of land. It was so far down in the Distortion World, that it really couldn't be seen from anywhere in it unless you were looking for it. A single, lone pillar stood up on the red cracked ground.

We slowed to a stop. "Put the orb on the pillar." Said pillar was only about waist height to me, so I set the Griserous Orb on the stone pillar. Giratina muttered some words that seemed to like gibberish, but were really something important. It was a spell of some sort, apparently. The orb began to glow.

"That's our cue to get the hell out of here!" Giratina shouted, and I jumped back on him. He took off like a rocket, heading straight for our entrance.

_Can't you just open a new portal?_

_Believe it or not, human, the failsafe diables new portals, which I thought would be a great idea for trapping Dialga and Palkia._

_Look out!_ We ran into Darkrai, who began unleashed everything he had on us. Shadow Hyper Beams, and much much more. We sailed right past him, but not before he hit the rock wall next to us with a shadow beam.

I lost my grip on Giratina's horns, and slid all the way down his body, before I caught the second to last spikes on his tail. I wrapped my arms around his tail just above the spikes, so I wouldn't slip off, and for extra support, I planted my feet on his last spikes, effectively keeping me from falling.

One glance down into the Distortion World behind us yielded...nothing. Literally, a giant black void that was slowly increasing to consume the entireity of the Torn World.

_How close are we?_ I thought/asked.

_Almost halfway there. I know where it is exactly. Do you trust me?_

_Um...yeah. Why?_

Without warning, Giratina flung his tail forward, and I lost my grip and went flying toward the portal. Giratina turned toward Darkrai, and charged at him head on. Darkrai was slightly amused by the last act of courage, and attempted to fire off another attack. Giratina rammed into him, taking the both into the black void, destroying them both.

I released a deep breath, knowing that my three month partner was gone. Looking back up, I saw how close I was to the portal. I also saw how close the void was to consuming me.

I could see Nikki staring down into the portal, reaching out to me. Nick, Elroy, Spiri and Arceus stood next to her calmly watching.

I reached my hands out as I felt my feet go numb as the void reached me. I was so close. The rest of my body went numb as I felt darkness over come me.

Then...nothing. Silence. Darkness. Nothing.

* * *

Nikki had limped over to the portal, and was about to enter through it when Spiri put a hand on her shoulder. "There's nothing you can do in there by yourself. Let them do it. They'll come back out fine."

Myla was on her knees, lost in confusion and shock. Nick was bleeding from his nose. Elroy seemed untouched, even though Spiri was positive that he had had his mind under complete control of Rayquaza.

Arceus was cursing under his breath as he glanced down into the portal. "He certainly has courage."

The next few minutes were spent in complete silence, with everyone watching in anticipation. Everyone execpt Cyrus, who had dissapeared a few minutes back.

"There he comes," Nick said as he pointed at a figure flying right at the portal. The entire background of the Distortion World was black.

Nikki leaned through the portal, reaching her hands out to him, but Arceus pulled her back out.

Before she could respond by doing anything, the portal had closed, and everyone in it was gone. Her eyes instantly teared up, as she relived the pain from Casteila City, just after he'd been shot. Memories of their enitre adventure, from the meeting outside of Straiton City, the first kiss in Casteila, and everything in between and after.

Spiri sat on the ground next to her, putting her arm around her. "He's cheated death before," Mespirit assured her. "He can do it again." She cast a glance up a Arceus, one that was telling him to do something.

Arceus nodded, and raised his staff into the air, and a white pulse shot out of it, growing in size as it zipped across the lands.

Spiri looked around, but it didn't seem like Arceus had brought him back. She stood up and went over to him. "Where is he?"

"Who?"

"Trevor, dumbass," Spiri replied. "Nikki was madly in love with him, and your supposed to bring him back."

"I was in love with who?" Nikki asked, standing up, seeming completely fine. She looked around, trying to figure something out. The other people were looking at her with strange looks.

Something in Spiri's mind clicked. She gasped at Arceus. "You didn't..."

"I did," he replied, smirking. "I changed the past, and the present, and the future. Trevor never has, and never will exsist. You and I are the only two whoever knew he exsisted."

Spiri felt sick to her stomach. Like she was about to puke. And she did, right there in front of everyone. She made up her mind. No matter what, she was going to get Nikki to remember Trevor, even if it killed her.

Arceus stared out across the landscape, seeing how it had changed. Anything that Trainer had an influence on was changed and replaced with alternate memories, erasing all mentions of Trevor, and life continued on. He had several good reasons for what he did. One, no one would ever know of the process of Gar-Duno. Two, why leave a girl in pain for the rest of her life? Three, He was finally gone.

It was nice to see that Trainer gone. Arceus had never liked many humans. That particular human had meddled with the Legendaries, and he had paid the price. His deeds were gone. Everything he had done had vanished. And there was no one who could remember him...

**Sandgem Town Hospital, fourteen years previous...**

Cyrus was walking through the halls of the hospital, looking for room 341. He had gone back in time right after that girl had stopped him from getting her out of Slateport City. Releasing a long held breath, he opened his hand, revealing a small diamond, a shard of the Adamant Orb, which possesses the power to travel through time.

He closed his hand, knowing that he would return to his time period after he had a talk with his wife, and stayed while Dawn was born. He shook the thoughts of how he had killed his daughter out of his head, noting that he hadn't actually killed her. She was alive, and also Palkia.

Taking another deep breath, he stood before room 341. He hoped Trevor had saved the day, just like he always did. That boy had changed the leader of Team Galactic's life, and Cyrus was thankful for that. He couldn't possibly imagine how bad things would have been if that teen had never exsisted...


	24. Epilouge

_Epilouge_

I stared back into my grandchildren's faces, completely unsurprised that none of them believed me. "I told it like it happened," I said raising my hands. "If you don't believe me, then that's your own problem."

"Gee, Grandpa," Kaylee said, folding her arms. "It's not really that hard to not believe that story. You just made it up."

Micheal pushed himself off the floor. "It doesn't matter," he told her. "It was still a good story."

Kara shrugged as she typed some stuff into her laptop. "It could've been longer," she sighed. "I'll probably have to make some adaptations to it."

I smiled. "I never said that it was over, did I?"

All of the kids looked over to me, even their mother. Kara was the first to speak. "Well, I just figured that since you said that you had died, that it was over."

"That's something you need to learn, Kara, before you head out on your journey," I said. "When one journey ends, another one begins."

"Well your ended in the middle," Jeffery noted. "I was honestly expecting that you and that girl were going all the way to the Unova League."

I scratched my head. "Believe it or not, we did." I smiled as the memories came back to me. "We picked up right where we left off, in Nimbasa City." I looked over at their mother. "But, for me to continue with that story, I'd have to tell another, longer one."

Dawn threw her hands up, acting just like the girl that I had named her after. "I guess we can stay longer, just let me put some of the colder groceries in the freezer." She left for the kitchen, and the kids made themselves at home again.

I glanced at a Pokeball that sat on the mantle, above my fireplace.

_Hey old man, I think you're telling it wrong,_ the Pokemon inside told me. _Perhaps I should tell it to them._

_Ah, no. You'd scare the living shit out of the kids, since you're so ugly._

_You're one to talk, old geezer._

I rolled my eyes. For obivious reasons, I never let that Pokemon out of the kids were around. Of course, when they were older, I planned to let the take rides on him.

_I'm not a damned roller coaster, _the Pokemon continued. _When they're older you should let them take rides in you wheelchair._

I sighed. The world was changing. People were changing. Technology was changing. And yet, Voi never changed.

My daughter walked back into the room, and sat all the floor crossed legged like she had when I told her of the first adventure. "Ready?" I asked. Kara held up a finger, as she set up the voice recorder. Then she gave the thumbs up.

"It was a warm summer day in Orre..."

**-40 years eariler...**

I woke up, staring at the morning sky. Clouds high in the sky, bird Pokemon that I had never seen before were flying. It was a beautiful day to be alive. I was on my back, staring up through the forest canopy. It was beautiful.

Time was passing slowly, and I just layed there. I had no idea of how I got here, or who I was or where I was. It was all a blur. Colors faded in and out, sounds clashed together, but I couldn't remember a thing...


End file.
